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Hidemi Shimura
Japan
Her work, carefully created with thread, is intended to reflect the world around us as it is, such as the connection between people and the connection between people and the world.
After majoring in fashion design at university, after working as a 3DCG creator, she became a contemporary artist. Immediately after her debut, she held her first solo exhibition in Paris, and has been actively working overseas since then. Settled in Shanghai from 2006 to 2013 and worked as an artist. Now based in Saitama, Japan.
In recent years, she has also taken on the challenge of experimental work production, and is creating new series one after another.
Exhibition
2022, November - Lisbon.
"Boundaries"
This artwork is one of the "Boundaries" series that focuses on human vulnerability.
The reason why I decided to focus on "vulnerability" this time is that in the world around us these days, it seems that it is good to be strong and to work hard. However, despite the hardships around the world due to the Covid-19, it may have helped us realize that we are not that strong.
With this as a trigger, I feel that the weak parts of people are taken for granted, and by considering each other’s weakness, something like new strength is born. These threads in this artwork expresses the two sides of human vulnerability and strength, and our history that will continue forever.
A person's life is often compared to the flow of a river, and each life becomes a line. Long lines, short lines, straight lines, winding lines, and completely different lines are intricately overlapped to create a world that surrounds us. The lines created by the threads in this artwork represent the boundaries created by those innumerable lines.
At one time, it has a fluttering and gentle delicacy, at another time, it has a taut strength, and the thread shows various expressions depending on how it is used. At times, we humans are at the mercy of the flow like a thread floating in water, and at other times we push forward with a strong will like a straight thread, creating a new world in the future.
Note: The background of the work has letters painted with luminous paint, and the letters stand out when viewed in the dark. This means that the negative part of a person is exposed only in the dark.
Material / Technique:
Sewing thread (cotton), Japanese paper, embroidery thread (silk), Kent paper, acrylic paint, acrylic board and stick, wooden panel
* Sew Japanese paper over and over again with sewing thread by sewing machine. Rinse the sewn Japanese paper with colored water, and dry it. Stick the dried Japanese paper on the background. Add a lot of silk embroidery threads that are stretched straight and fixed.
"Silent Invader"
“It's been a while since bar code has spread over our life. But "What is bar code? Who is it?" It might be an envoy sent by an alien who wants to dominate over the Earth. Or it could be some code made by some confidential organization (like CIA or something) to brainwash the people. The 'Bar code' must be scheming something at this time. All of you, please be careful enough when you use the bar code!”
Bar code part represents something artificial and men themselves, multicolored stripe parts represent the world around us.
If you see the detail of the color part, mismatched colors like normally people won’t combine together are located next to each other. This world is filled with a wide variety of people and miscellaneous things, at first glance, it looks chaotic but when you see it from far away, you’ll find out unexpected harmonies.
The world surrounding us also seems to be chaotic, but in fact, there are some kind of balance and harmony. If you see the world from a distance, you can find new beauty and harmony. Like this, I represent the relation of the world surrounding us and ordinary life of people by my artworks.
material
embroidery thread, acrylic board, double-sided tape, paper
technique
Coil embroidery threads on thin cut acrylic boards. Stick them to an acrylic board.
"Paralelle World"
We generate our own environment. We get exactly what we deserve.
from “ONE” by Richard Bach
Is this a world we really desire?
Is there any ideal world somewhere else?
What do we do there?
What kind of scenery can we see there?
When you felt a little bored by your daily life, when some hard thing happened, imagine parallel world and think what you would do there, then you may feel like your world is spreading and feel a little bit excited.
In the parallel world series, I want to express the feeling of little excitement and being cured by imagine another world.
The combination of color represents a world surrounding us. If you see the detail, you will find mismatched colors like normally people won’t use together are located next to each other. This world is filled with a wide variety of people and miscellaneous things. At first glance, it looks chaotic but when you see it from distance, you will find out unexpected harmonies.
The world surrounding us also seems to be chaotic, but in fact, there are some kinds of balance and harmony. If you see the world from a distance, you can find new beauty and harmony. Like this, I represent the relationship of the world surrounding us and ordinally life of people by my artworks.
material
silk embroidery thread, acrylic mirror plate, acrylic rod
technique
Coil silk embroidery thread on acrylic rod, then attach to acrylic mirror plate
"Tension"
It is said that the Chinese character “人 -people-” represents the way people support each other. But to me, it seems like each person has some gravity and pulling each other. (The rubble fragments in the artwork represent the people, and the thread represents the tension between the people.) I especially felt that when I started living in Shanghai where people around the world and the other places in China come over to live and leave in short period. The pulling force is the stress necessary to live, and by pulling from here and there, people stabilize their dangling bodies.
However, if the balance of tension is lost at one point, the thread breaks or loosely loosens. It can lead to stress and excessive relaxation, and can disrupt people's life rhythms. However, people try to restore the thread to regain life balance.
And the thread starts from a connection with people around you, crosses the sea, and fills the whole world. When I imagine that the whole earth is surrounded by countless mesh I feel overwhelmed, but it seems like a beautiful scene at the same time.
The background of this series
This series was born in 2008 when I lived in Shanghai. For me, the city of Shanghai is a wide-minded city that has unconditionally accepted people who appear and disappear somewhere in short term, including me as a foreigner, but at the same time it seems to be a very pitiful city for me. I think this series was born to leave my impression of Shanghai as artworks. This series use pieces of Shanghai's demolished house, so I can only get materials in Shanghai.
