Chiharu Shiota State of Being, 2023, photo, Chiharu Shiota Studio
You are probably familiar by now with the Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota who weaves strings and embroiders canvases in her Berlin studio. “Memory under the Skin” is the new in-situ installation at Galerie Templon rue du Grenier Saint Lazare, of woven works and clothes and now also of her hands as well as her husband’s and her daughter’s, sculpted in bronze and in metal threads. There is the apparition of boats in drawing and in bronze and metal threads with their light golden load. A spectacular white dress embroidered in red, welcomes the visitor in the first room and waltzes around. The title alludes to clothes as being a second skin. In the other gallery of 30 rue Beaubourg, Will Cotton plays with ultra-masculine cowboys battling a pink unicorn and a new voluptuous and provocative “cowgirl”. “Trigger”, the title of the series refers to the safe spaces created by the liberal left on American campuses in recent years. But can it be dissociated from firearms?
Chiharu Shiota, “Memory Under the Skin”, 2023, Dress, motor, steel, paint, photo Adrien Millot
After studying in Kyoto at Seika University, the artist (born 1972) chose to move to Berlin and focus on performances and installations. She is showing many red pieces this time, which alternate with black, her preferred color so far. I loved her embroidered drawings on paper and her “Extended line” a large installation of ropes and papers caught in them, which occupies the two floors of the gallery under the glass ceiling.
“The Extended Line”, 2023, Photo by Adrien Millot
On rue Beaubourg, the atmosphere is much sweeter with New York painter Will Cotton (born 1965) who plays with cowboys and cowgirls and pink unicorns. He invests a world that mirrors our schizophrenic societies with grandiose landscapes and cascading sweets and candy floss.He adresses timeless myths with pop culture imagery.
Will Cotton, “Slippery Descent”, 2022-2023, photo studio Bill Cotton
Galerie Templon, until July 22 at 30 rue Beaubourg and 28 rue du Grenier Saint Lazare.
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