Year: 2015
Medium: metal frame, red thread, skull model
Dimensions: 50 x 25 x 25 cm (19 5/8 x 9 7/8 x 9 7/8 in.)
Acquired from KENJI TAKI GALLERY, 2022
“State of Being” is considered one of the most important series in Shiota's works. Various objects are enclosed inside a rectangular metal frame, with the objects being held in the hollow space by monochromatic threads of red, white, black, and other colors. This work combines Shiota’s signature red threads and a skull which symbolizes her consistent theme of death and life. It is believed that the term “State of Being” is taken by Shiota from linguistic theory and philosophical terminology. In Ontology that Descartes, Spinoza and other philosophers have discussed, existence is described by the distinctions between “substance”, “attribute” and “mode”. The condition of transformed absolute “substance” is “attribute”, while the condition of “substance” in which takes on some kind of particularity is “mode”. What is expressed in Shiota's “State of Being” series is a manifestation of (state of) how it exists (being) and the condition in which a thing acquires its specificity through its being is captured as a model. By using a skull as vanitas symbol, this artwork prompts each individual viewer to contemplate their own “mode” of death and life.
