Chiharu Shiota's glittering web of thoughts

Chiharu Shiota has created a work of art at Swarovski Kristallwelten that touches the soul without words. The new ​‘Chamber of Wonders’, entitled ​‘Crystallizing Identity’, is Shiota’s first permanent installation in Austria.

The Japanese artist has long been a star of the international art scene. Anyone who has ever wandered through one of her walk-in networks of threads will know the extent to which her works penetrate beneath the skin. Sometimes shoes are suspended inside them, sometimes clothes or chairs – relics of a life, captured in red or black lines that flow through the space like thoughts. In Wattens, for the first time ever, she combines this principle with crystal – a material that itself represents light, time, and fragility.

Japanese folklore in the Alps

At the centre of the new Chamber of Wonders is a mesh of red woollen threads interspersed with crystal beads. The threads intertwine to form arms, legs, and a hand – symbolising the human being as a point of intersection within a network of relationships. The work is inspired by a Japanese legend: according to this legend, an invisible red thread connects people who are meant for one another – across time and space.

Shiota translates this idea into the present day – sensually, quietly, powerfully. Her installation plays with proximity and distance, with light and shadow, with presence and absence. ​‘We live in separate bodies, but we share a universe of thought,’ she says. And here, what sounds like a contradiction becomes an experience. Between sparkling crystals and red thread, a space emerges that feels more than it shows.

International art at Kristallwelten

The location is no coincidence either. Inaugurated in 1995, the Swarovski Kristallwelten (Crystal Worlds) are more than just a tourist attraction: they are a stage for international art – from Yayoi Kusama to Lee Bul to James Turrell. The latter created Umbra, a meditative light space in which colours flow like breath. Rafael Lozano-Hemmers’ Pulse, on the other hand, reacts to visitors’ heartbeats, making emotions visible. Shiota adds a finely woven, personal dimension to this list. Her work fits in seamlessly – and yet also stands out.

For it’s about identity. About what makes us who we are. And about what connects us. To others. To ourselves. And sometimes – to a place. You’ll want to come back.

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