連結與流動：塩田千春作品中的跨文化物語

Abstract

日本藝術家塩田千春（1972年生）以沉浸式裝置藝術聞名於國際，其創作將線材、拾得物與空間環境交織在一起，探討記憶、身分、缺席與情感糾纏等議題。自1999年定居柏林以來，她始終處於東西方美學傳統交會的前沿。其跨文化的生命經驗深刻塑造了藝術語彙，使行李箱、鞋子、鑰匙與紅線等象徵性物件得以承載遷徙、渴望與文化協商的視覺敘事。塩田的作品並非僅僅描繪個人記憶，而是將其轉化為跨越文化界限、可被共享的視覺語言，並透過觀者的身體在場引發情感共鳴。本論文探討塩田如何透過空間構成、材料選擇與情感勞動，使記憶具體化並得以感知。首先聚焦於長期系列《Accumulation – Searching for the Destination》（2011–2025）的形式演變，剖析她如何以二手行李箱與紅線構築出象徵遷徙與不確定性的場域。這些行李箱多來自跳蚤市場，保留使用痕跡，經由懸吊、機械擺動與密集排列，被轉化為記憶的容器與精神的載體。論文亦分析鞋子作為身體痕跡的再現媒介。在《Over the Continents》（2008–2015）中，觀眾需穿越由紅線連結的舊鞋構成的空間結構，在行走過程中與記憶產生身體性的連結。塩田運用鏡面、線材密度與懸吊高度等空間手法，營造非語言、非線性的記憶氛圍，使觀者的移動與視線成為經驗的一部分。接續章節探討其創作中蘊含的文化脈絡，包括日本美學中的「間」（ma）、無常（mujo）與付喪神（tsukumogami）觀念，如何在裝置中轉化為時間感、精神性與物的生命性。同時，本研究亦分析塩田在 Marina Abramović 與 Rebecca Horn 門下的重要養成經歷：從 Abramović 習得全然投入身體的紀律，以及「身體本身可以不依賴語言敘事」的理念；從 Horn 則獲得對物件表演性潛能的敏銳感知。這些養分促使她由現場行為轉向裝置創作，仍保留表演張力，並邀請觀者以身體參與感知歷史與情緒。最後一章引入文化混融、女性勞動與後博物館空間等理論觀點，論證塩田的作品並非旨在消解文化差異，而是透過象徵物件、編織行為與協作勞動，形塑跨越語言與邊界的共感空間。其紅線裝置不僅呈現身體與記憶的關係，亦揭示集體製作與關懷勞動的女性經驗。觀者在作品中必須放慢節奏、調整步伐，藉由移動與凝視，實踐記憶的當下再現與共時體驗。本論文從材料性、空間性與文化詮釋三個面向，全面分析塩田千春的裝置藝術實踐。透過具體作品個案與理論架構，揭示她如何藉由物件來源、空間節奏與情感勞動構築記憶場域，並指出其作品對當代裝置藝術中記憶倫理與跨文化共感的深遠意義。The Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota (b. 1972) is internationally renowned for her immersive installation art, in which she weaves together threads, found objects, and spatial environments to explore themes of memory, identity, absence, and emotional entanglement. Since settling in Berlin in 1999, she has remained at the forefront of the intersection between Eastern and Western aesthetic traditions. Her cross-cultural life experiences have profoundly shaped her artistic vocabulary, enabling symbolic objects such as suitcases, shoes, keys, and red thread to carry visual narratives of migration, longing, and cultural negotiation. Shiota’s work does not merely depict personal memory but transforms it into a visual language that transcends cultural boundaries, generating emotional resonance through the viewer’s physical presence.This thesis examines how Shiota materializes and renders memory perceptible through spatial composition, material selection, and affective labor. It first focuses on the formal evolution of her long-term series Accumulation – Searching for the Destination (2011–2025) analyzing how she uses second-hand suitcases and red thread to construct symbolic environments of migration and uncertainty. These suitcases, largely sourced from flea markets and bearing traces of prior use, are suspended, mechanically swayed, and densely arranged, becoming both containers of memory and vessels of spirit. The thesis also investigates shoes as representational media of bodily traces. In Over the Continents (2008–2015), viewers traverse a spatial structure composed of worn shoes connected by red thread, forging a corporeal connection to memory through the act of walking. Through spatial strategies such as mirrors, variations in thread density, and adjustments in suspension height, Shiota creates non-verbal, non-linear atmospheres of memory, making the viewer’s movement and gaze integral to the experience.Subsequent chapters explore the cultural contexts embedded in her practice, including the Japanese aesthetic concepts of ma (間, interval), mujo (無常, impermanence), and tsukumogami (付喪神, the animacy of objects), and how they are transformed in her installations into temporal sensibilities, spirituality, and the vitality of things. The study also examines Shiota’s formative training under Marina Abramović and Rebecca Horn: from Abramović, she absorbed the discipline of complete bodily commitment and the notion that “the body itself can narrate without language”; from Horn, she gained a keen sensitivity to the performative potential of objects. These influences enabled her shift from live performance to installation art while retaining performative tension, inviting viewers to engage bodily with history and emotion.The final chapter introduces theoretical perspectives on cultural hybridity, women’s labor, and the postmuseum, arguing that Shiota’s works do not seek to dissolve cultural differences but instead shape an empathetic space that transcends linguistic and territorial boundaries through symbolic objects, acts of weaving, and collaborative labor. Her red-thread installations not only articulate the relationship between body and memory but also reveal the feminine experiences of collective making and care-oriented labor. Within these works, viewers are compelled to slow their pace, adjust their steps, and, through movement and gaze, enact the present reappearance and synchronous experience of memory.Approaching Shiota’s installation practice from the perspectives of materiality, spatiality, and cultural interpretation, this thesis offers a comprehensive analysis through detailed case studies and theoretical frameworks. It demonstrates how she constructs mnemonic spaces through object provenance, spatial rhythm, and affective labor, and underscores the profound significance of her work in shaping an ethics of memory and cross-cultural empathy within contemporary installation art.