Trace of Memory

"“Trace of Memory,” an eight-room work in the museum’s 516 Sampsonia Way Gallery, is by Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota. The museum provided 10 installers to supplement three assistants from her Berlin studio, period-specific objects and the 500,000 feet of black yarn that wends its way through the 19th-century row house. Installers worked in the house for 10 days, sometimes from 9 a.m. to midnight.
Ms. Shiota has exhibited in Europe and Japan, and her installation “Memory of Books” was part of the 2011 Venice Biennale. The rawness of the 516 Sampsonia Way site appealed to the artist, whose recurring themes are remembrance and oblivion, dreaming and sleeping, and the anxiety that sometimes arises from them."
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