Hammer Projects: Chiharu Shiota

Chiharu Shiota (b. 1972, Osaka) is a Berlin-based artist whose installations, sculpture, and performance art invoke psychogeographic spaces of memory, emotions, and the cyclical nature of life and death. Using red, black, or white yarn as a base material, Shiota often creates meticulously webbed environments that span the length of entire galleries and mimic organic forms such as cobwebs, veins, and fractals. Shiota also includes a range of found objects in her work such as wooden chairs, abandoned shoes, rusted keys, and used dresses as a strategy to implicate the viewer in the artist's personal narratives that are often universal experiences.

Shiota will be the inaugural artist featured in the Hammer’s redesigned lobby and will envelop the area with a unique and visceral installation.

Hammer Projects: Chiharu Shiota is organized by Erin Christovale, curator, with Nika Chilewich, curatorial assistant.

Watch on Hammer Channel

A person walking under an installation of fine red thread suspended from the ceiling and connect to small boat frames

Chiharu Shiota, Uncertain Journey, 2019

Hammer Projects are single-gallery exhibitions highlighting the work of contemporary artists from around the globe, often presenting new work at a pivotal moment of an artist’s development. Ongoing since 1999, Hammer Projects is a signature series within the Hammer’s exhibition program.

Hammer Projects is presented in memory of Tom Slaughter and with support from the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation. Lead funding is provided by the Hammer Collective. Generous support is also provided by Susan Bay Nimoy and Leonard Nimoy, with additional support from the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission.

Hammer Projects: Chiharu Shiota is made possible, in part, by Shah Garg Foundation, with additional support from The Japan Foundation, Los Angeles.