(Re)Trace Kusama to Shiota

EVENT DESCRIPTION

Phillips is pleased to present (Re)Trace Kusama to Shiota, an exhibition featuring works by two Japanese contemporary art stars Yayoi Kusama and Chiharu Shiota. The exhibition includes a non-selling group of artworks by Chiharu Shiota, the largest collection of the artist ever presented to the public in Hong Kong. This group of non-selling pieces has been generously provided to be loan by Mr. Jay Pang of ARTICKS. And showcased alongside this group of museum grade works will be a series of iconic creations by the two female artists that are available for purchase through Phillips’ Private Sales.

While Kusama and Shiota have had considerable exposure and solo exhibitions across a number of major cities in the world, their works have never been brought together on such a scale and juxtaposed thematically. This show follows the success of Yayoi Kusama’s recent retrospective at M+, Yayoi Kusama: 1945 to Now, and it will open to the public from 18-30 April at Phillips’ new Asia headquarters in Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District.

Among the exhibition highlights is Chiharu Shiota’s State of Being (Dress), an immersive, all-encompassing piece in a powerful red colour reminiscent of organic forms and blood vessels. Shiota incorporates found everyday objects such as clothing, shoes or dolls, with her use of red threads visualising human connections and relationships. The work measures 260 x 180 x 85 cm, and is the first large dress installation ever exhibited to the public in Hong Kong.

Also highlighting the exhibition is Yayoi Kusama’s Six Guests, executed in 1986, when the artist’s sculptures contained poetic and personal undertones. Here the artist’s signature phallic shapes still blanket the objects, but do not pose a menace. Surrounded by bowls, a jug, flowers and a pineapple, Kusama’s creations are brought into the safe, kitsch-infused realm of quotidian femininity and family life. With Six Guests Kusama defiantly seizes control of her discourse, and the phallus is no longer an object of fear that dominates the narrative of the work, but is instead wholly contained and controlled by the feminine.