Chiharu Shiota has made a name for herself with immersive installations of interlacing wool yarn. She has also created set designs for the likes of Sasha Waltz and Sidi Larbi Cherkaou. I had somehow missed her large retrospective, which was on show at the Grand Palais in Spring 2025. With an hour to spare I thought I’d make a quick detour to visit the exhibition currently at London’s Hayward Gallery, which is a downsized remix of the touring exhibition that was previously shown in Paris, Turin, Montreal, Shenzhen and other locations around the world.
The first room, “Threads of Life” (2026), features a dense web of scarlet threads with hundreds of vintage keys dangling from the threads. In the middle of the room an open wooden door makes for a perfect photo-op if you’re visiting with a friend. It certainly looks great and I admire the work that goes into creating the installation, but the symbolism of the door and the keys is a bit too obvious for me. The same goes for the other two room-filling installations. “Letters of Thanks” (2026) consists of a forest of red threads suspended from ceiling to floor, with letters of gratitude attached. The final room, “During Sleep” (2026), consists of several vintage unmade white metal hospital beds complete with pillow and blanket overgrown by a web of black threads. It is straight out of a fairy tale.
If you happen to come across an exhibition by Chiharu Shiota and have never seen her work before you should definitely check it out. She has developed a unique aesthetic and that in itself is high praise in today's crowded art world.
Chiharu Shiota: Threads of Life is at the Hayward Gallery in London until 3 May 2026.