BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — The Watershed in East Boston, an extension of the Institute for Contemporary Art, is examining the meaning of home with Chiharu Shiota's latest installations.
Visitors of the exhibit are greeted by two large-scale installations by the German-based artist. Her signature web-like installments tie in objects that address themes of home and migration, invoking memories of the human experience. According to Ruth Erickson, an ICA curator, the thread is a metaphor for the ties that link humans to each other, their history, and their upbringing.
"So she has built here about a hundred-foot-long silhouette of a house, and she's done that with over a hundred miles of thin red rope," Erickson said.
The first of her two installations, entitled Accumulation — Searching for the destination, features suitcases floating in a field of thread. For Shiota, who moved away from her home in Japan in her early twenties with one suitcase, the exhibition represents the start of a new journey.
Her newly commissioned artwork, entitled Home Less Home, includes thousands of documents that explore the meaning of home.
"Chiharu Shiota's Home Less Home is a monumental installation made of simple everyday materials of paper, furniture, and rope to create a transporting experience that evokes different experiences and connections to home," stated Erickson.
The work features letters, passports, and immigration papers from several contributors, including some from Boston. This is Shiota's first solo presentation in New England. The exhibition ends Sept. 1.
WBZ NewsRadio's Carl Stevens (@CarlWBZ) reports.