Chiharu Shiota: Threads of Life

Chiharu Shiota is best-known for her large-scale installations which engulf ordinary objects – such as shoes, keys, beds, chairs and dresses – within huge web structures made from woollen thread. The resulting works are immersive and deeply emotive, often drawing from personal experience, which Shiota expands into universal human concerns such as life, death and relationships. Accompanied by new large-scale sculptures, drawings, early performance videos and photographs, the artist's signature works are woven from floor-to-ceiling across the Hayward Gallery's top floor, responding to the gallery's iconic brutalist architecture in a truly atmospheric presentation. The exhibition features new iterations of Shiota's past monumental installations, including During Sleep (2026), which is activated with performances throughout the run of the exhibition.