Art: Chiharu Shiota’s first solo UK show

Heads-up, England! Berlin-based Japanese artist, Chiharu Shiota, is heading to Blighty for her debut solo show in a British public gallery. She will create one of her monumental signature ‘thread’ installations at Towner, the award-winning new gallery in Eastbourne, East Sussex, and we recommend you checking it out.

Why? Well, it sounds pretty goddamn impressive, that’s why. Shiota’s large-scale, immersive, disorientating and contemplative installation will consume Towner’s upper gallery with one of its most ambitious commissions to date. The artist will fill the entire space with a wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling cocoon woven from thousands of metres of black yarn that can be entered through two doors held within its mesh.

It is a work that has taken almost three years to develop, and Shiota says of her installation: “The doors are doors that used to be in Berlin apartments. I’m sure they could tell a lot of stories. Doors also open and close, just as people enter our lives and leave them again. All these elements manifest themselves in memories.“

In previous large-scale projects she has encased shoes, giant dresses, books, beds, steps, a baby grand piano and stool, and sometimes even herself, in the weblike constructions.

Chiharu Shiota runs from 11 October 2013 to 5 January 2014 at Towner, Devonshire Park, Eastbourne (a short walk from the station/seafront). Admission is free. More details here.

Artist Talks: Friday 22 November, 6.30pm – Japan Foundation, London, free. Saturday 23 November, 3:00pm – Towner, Eastbourne, £6:00/5:00. Curator’s Talk: Thursday 24 October, 12.30pm – Towner, Eastbourne, free.