{"id":633686,"date":"2026-10-02T00:20:20","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T00:20:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/633686\/"},"modified":"2026-10-02T00:20:20","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T00:20:20","slug":"chiharu-shiotas-soul-trembles-at-the-montreal-museum-of-fine-arts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/633686\/","title":{"rendered":"Chiharu Shiota\u2019s Soul Trembles at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts"},"content":{"rendered":"

The artist\u2019s globe-trotting exhibition touches down in North America<\/p>\n

\"A“Uncertain Journey,” by Chiharu Shiota, Courtesy of Montreal Museum of Fine Arts<\/p>\n

As Chiharu Shiota<\/a>\u2019s exhibit \u201cThe Soul Trembles\u201d<\/a> traverses the globe, she cuts down her immersive thread installations and restrings them at the next destination. Born in Osaka<\/a>, Shiota has lived in Berlin<\/a> since 1996 where she continues to conceive her stunning works in fine art and performance. Her dramatic creations capture the imagination of museum goers with record setting attendance around the world. With this opening in Montreal<\/a>, curated by Mami Kataoka of the Mori Art Museum<\/a> in Tokyo<\/a> and Iris Amizlev of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts<\/a> (MMFA), the celebrated exhibition docks for the first time in North America.<\/p>\n

\"AChiharu Shiota, Photo by Sunhi Mang<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is my life. All of my emotions are in my work,\u201d Shiota says as the final touches were being put on the installation. After each exhibition she knows that the threads will be cut down and sculptural installations are reduced to piles of string. \u201cI hope people can keep the memories and that their memories will last forever,\u201d she says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very happy that the set-up is done,\u201d says Shiota at an early preview of the exhibition. \u201cEveryone was so welcoming, and the opening was such a wonderful event. Montreal is beautiful.\u201d Though the process of installing a show as large as \u201cThe Soul Trembles\u201d means managing a team of several local students and artists, Shiota was able to find a little time to explore Montreal\u2019s outdoor markets including the colorful Marche Jean-Talon<\/a> that originally opened in 1933.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A\u201cWhere Are We Going?\u201d by Chiharu Shiota, Courtesy of Montreal Museum of Fine Arts<\/p>\n

In a building designed by architects Edward and William S. Maxwell in 1912, the MMFA\u2019s Beaux Arts white marble fa\u00e7ade and a tall colonnaded portico may seem like a surprising setting for Shiota\u2019s contemporary works. To enter the show, museum guests ascend the grand staircase under ghostly white boats suspended overhead, flanked in black fringe. This dramatic fleet is entitled \u201cWhere are We Going?\u201d and offers a harbinger of the journey ahead.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This is my life. All of my emotions are in my work.<\/p>\n

CHiharu Shiota<\/p>\n

Inside the first room, a sweet flower painting from Shiota\u2019s childhood greets visitors. On the same wall, a vibrant abstract painting marks the time when she quit painting, citing an inability to fully express herself in the medium. What transpired next was a series of performance art explorations, where she used her body and other materials. In \u201cBecoming Painting,\u201d Shiota covered herself in red enamel paint. She later wrapped herself in fabric, surrounded in tubes that resembled the flow of blood. Her arrival in Berlin led to studying with Marina Abramovic<\/a> and participating in many body-focused photo and video works, some of which are displayed as visual representation of her evolution as a young artist.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A\u201cBecoming Painting,\u201d by Chiharu Shiota, Photo by Julie Wolfson<\/p>\n

The next gallery features an early fabric installation and a giant platform covered with doll furniture and flea market finds. These small objects have been painstakingly attached to each other with varying widths of red threads connecting her miniature world.\u00a0In an art landscape that continues to push the boundaries of digital art, AI creations and technological advances, this focus on tactile bonds, from delicate to bold, throughout \u201cThe Soul Trembles\u201d feels particularly poignant. Shiota can take viewers on an immersive, otherworldly journey inside her hand-woven thread creations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AArtwork by Chiharu Shiota, Photo by Julie Wolfson<\/p>\n

\"AArtwork by Chiharu Shiota, Courtesy of Montreal Museum of Fine Arts<\/p>\n

One gallery features imagery and video from her theatre, dance and opera stage designs. \u201cMy last theatre project was the stage design for \u201cIdomeneo, re di Creta\u201d in 2024,\u201d says Shiota. \u201cWorking with choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui was a great experience. I enjoy creating for the stage. It\u2019s very different from an exhibition because I have to work together with many people and the performers have to interact with all the materials.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A\u201cInside \u2013 Outside,\u201d by Chiharu Shiota, Photo by Julie Wolfson<\/p>\n

\"A\u201cInside \u2013 Outside,\u201d by Chiharu Shiota, Photo by Julie Wolfson<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Soul Trembles\u201d continues with a large installation of windows called \u201cInside \u2013 Outside\u201d that sits across from two hand-sewn white dresses with a mirror that are encased in a giant box frame covered in black threads. In the next room Shiota enrobes a hauntingly beautiful burned piano in black strings that wind their way out to an audience of chairs and every corner with arched passageways to navigate through.<\/p>\n

In \u201cUncertain Journey,\u201d the centerpiece of the show and the most recognizable imagery of her work, red threads burst from the frames of small boats swirling in tangles to the edges of the walls and ceiling. Looking at her installation work in photos and videos offer a glimpse of the visceral feeling of wandering through the beauty of Shiota\u2019s world building in person.<\/p>\n

\"A\u201cUncertain Journey,\u201d by Chiharu Shiota, Courtesy of Montreal Museum of Fine Arts<\/p>\n

The MMFA installation is the 10th iteration of \u201cThe Soul Trembles\u201d since its original opening in 2019 at the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo. Shiota brings the elements to each stop on the tour, but needs to reshape accordingly to inhabit each museum\u2019s unique architecture. \u201cThe artworks themselves do not change,\u201d she explains. \u201cBut the political climate and the museum space are always different, so the feeling within the installation might change. Sometimes the museum\u2019s own collection is presented right next to my work, like at the MAO<\/a> in Italy<\/a>. Other times the museum asks me to create additional work specifically for the show.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Working with Kataoka and Amizlev to shape how the exhibit would inhabit the original MMFA building has become part of the artistic process for Shiota. \u201cThe ceiling is quite low compared to other presentations,\u201d says Shiota. \u201cSo the feeling changes.\u00a0For the installation \u201cAccumulation: Searching for the Destination,\u201d the suitcases are normally suspended, but for this location that wasn\u2019t possible.\u201d In a gallery on a lower floor, Shiota decided to stack the suitcases all the way up to the ceiling.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AArtwork by Chiharu Shiota, Photo by Julie Wolfson<\/p>\n

Previous stops have gathered record-breaking audiences. \u201cI am happy to see so many different people visit the exhibition, from children to elderly people,\u201d says Shiota. \u201cMy artwork is about something deep and touches on fundamental questions about death, which I had when I had cancer. But some works are made with very mundane objects like doll furniture; they are connected to my life, and this is a life everyone can connect to, playing with dolls or facing the meaning of death. My work is very universal.\u201d<\/p>\n

As \u201cThe Soul Trembles\u201d travels around the world, each stop on the tour eventually has a closing date. \u201cI\u2019m not sad about the de-installation, or about cutting the thread because I often already have the next destination planned,\u201d says Shiota. \u201cI\u2019m excited to show at the next stop, and I\u2019m thinking only about the future. The exhibition lives on in the memory of the viewer and memory is everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Soul Trembles\u201d<\/a> is now on view at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts <\/a>(MMFA)\u00a0 through 14 February, 2027.<\/p>\n

Chiharu Shiota\u2019s Soul Trembles at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts<\/p>\n

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