Departure is an immersive installation by Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota, which explores ideas of displacement, time and the entanglements of life. The work has been specially commissioned for the opening of the Jameel Arts Centre.

Working with large quantities of yarn, Shiota creates immersive web-like structures that take over entire rooms. Building on her experience growing up in Japan and moving to Berlin in the 1990s, her work often touches on the notion of travel, belonging and the complexity of the human condition.

In this particular installation, Chiharu works with traditional abra boats, referencing the history of the Dubai Creek and the city’s identity as a meeting point of people, goods and ideas.

Artist’s Rooms

Drawn largely from the Art Jameel Collection, Artist’s Rooms is a series of solo exhibitions by influential, innovative artists, with particular focus on practitioners from the Middle East, South Asia and Africa. These capsule shows are collaborative: curated in dialogue with the artist, with some presentations including new commissions. Winter 2018-19 features rooms by Maha Malluh, Mounira Al Solh, Lala Rukh and Chiharu Shiota in galleries 1, 2, 3 and 10.

About Chiharu Shiota

Chiharu Shiota (b.1972, Osaka) lives and works in Berlin, Germany. Through performances, installations and sculptures, Chiharu Shiota examines existential human interests such as life, death and relationships. She originally studied painting at Kyoto Seika University, Kyoto and is known today for creating large-scale installations from ordinary objects such as beds, shoes, keys, boats, dresses and chairs often in combination with thread or organic materials such as water, fire and soil.

Shiota’s international exhibitions include: Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf (2018), The Japanese Pavilion, 56th Venice Biennale, Venice (2015), Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian, Washington D.C. (2014-15), The Museum of Art, Kōchi (2013) and MoMA PS1, New York (2001).