Yarn Theory

For more than 20 years, artist, Chiharu Shiota has practiced with yarn and space – using one to grasp hold of the other.

Eighteen hundred individual threads are pulled together, attached to the floor, to the roof and to the walls. This isn’t a sculpture as much as it is a conversation. And in that way, this artwork cannot fully be understood through an image alone but demands an audience.

Eighteen hundred different threads talk to each other – holding their line, responding and refracting. Chiharu’s work blots out the contemporary world beyond. You are not just inside the Art Gallery or the Melrose Wing but inside yourself when you experience this work.

A blood red haze – the result of light filtering through Chiharu’s web – may remind you about the truth of your flesh; your analogue existence.

Memories you accessed as images in your mind are physically drawn out in this room. Suddenly your past is present and memorable moments can each be viewed as a decision – the intersection of your choices threaded together over time.