When traveling, we carry with us a suitcase filled with the few things we consider too much a part of us to leave behind. What happens, though, when the suitcase itself gets left behind?

Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota has taken over Galerie Daniel Templon with an instillation piece compiled of a crowd of old suitcases cascading down from the ceiling. Collected in the artist’s hometown of Berlin, each valise has trapped the lost spirit of his owner. Vitality rattles the entire installation.

Some cower in the back, some kneel before you. The immediate energy, though, is confronting. You take a step back, and every one has begun talking and asking questions at the same time.

Some of the suitcases literally shake from their strings, making the eerie sound of ghosts calling to still be heard. Those that are motionless, though, remain uncomfortably loud. The piece stands firmly before you, looking with eyes full of tears and eyes full of excitement. Masculine, feminine, some timid, some tired. All stand before you with a story.

Equally moving and incredibly potent, the suitcase installation is met and balanced out by a series of 10+ sculptures. Described as an “accumulation of objects, portraits, moments of life frozen in the threads of time,” the series delves into existential questions on the human mind and that which can only be sensed.

Tied up in string within metal frames, objects hang in mid-air, getting lost in the energy we put into what is “ours” and “carries memory.” Tangible, but outside of art, invisible. They speak of our inability to untangle the energy and amount of ourselves that we put into objects from the objects themselves.

The largest in the series is an outspread creamy white kimono, majestic behind the confines of its black web. An angel-like imagery is conjured, as if the kimono could fly away if not having already been captured by the opposing energy. The black, obscuring, impermanent human aspect beautifully juxtaposes that which is white and transcendent of this world.

Also significant in the series are a corresponding black and white set of geometric sculptures. The thread weaves around the metal bars, but incapsulates nothing. They are visually captivating, sharp, aggressive. They evoke broken glass bouncing back up into the air after shattering on the ground.

They are shattered energy. Falling apart, but inextricably tied together.

The final chef-d’œuvre are two round mirrors tied up in the energy of the black threads, begging the question: what energy am I entangled in? Do I see myself in the mirror or do I only see the energy that I confuse to be “me”? Is escape possible?

http://www.danieltemplon.com/
June 7 > July 23, 2014
Paris – 30 rue Beaubourg 

Article: Amanda Hinton