Highlights・Artists

  • 1
    In the midst of - connection to place and memory
    YAMASHIRO Chikako, Recalling(s), 2025. ©Chikako Yamashiro. Courtesy of the artist
    YAMASHIRO Chikako, Recalling(s), 2025.
    ©Chikako Yamashiro. Courtesy of the artist
    The exhibition title contains the duality of chance and inevitability, of inflow from an external source and an internal response. In their art, Yamashiro and Shiga have been creating new connections with distant places - Okinawa for Yamashiro and Tohoku for Shiga – through the history and experience of the people rooted in those lands. The themes of memory, devastation, displacement, and restoration in the works they are creating for this exhibition interact with Ishibashi Foundation Collection works. The entire exhibition space serves as an “in the midst of” area where time, place, form, and memory intersect to create experiences that resonate with viewer impressions and memories.
    YAMASHIRO Chikako, Recalling(s), 2025. ©Chikako Yamashiro. Courtesy of the artist
    YAMASHIRO Chikako, Recalling(s), 2025.
    ©Chikako Yamashiro. Courtesy of the artist
    SHIGA Lieko, HUMAN HIGHWAY, 2025. ©Lieko Shiga. Courtesy of the artist
    SHIGA Lieko, HUMAN HIGHWAY, 2025.
    ©Lieko Shiga. Courtesy of the artist
  • 2
    Introducing newly commissioned works by Yamashiro and Shiga
    YAMASHIRO Chikako, Recalling(s), 2025. ©Chikako Yamashiro. Courtesy of the artist
    YAMASHIRO Chikako, Recalling(s), 2025.
    ©Chikako Yamashiro. Courtesy of the artist
    Yamashiro’s new video installation interweaves narratives, songs, and prayers with the complex history of World War II memory of the bombing in Okinawa and Palau, and the Tokyo Air Raids. It is presented in a space with barracks-like tent structures where people with shared memories across space and time gather, share observations, and ultimately leave.
    Shiga’s photographic narrative visualizes the Tohoku and Sanriku region coastline, the progression from sea to land, as evocative of how we humans find our way in human society. She critically examines the historical view of progress and energy and, with the phrase nanumokanumo, an expression that includes the meaning “anything and everything” in northern Miyagi Prefecture dialect, explores how the human spirit, society, and community continue to be unsettled, regardless of reconstruction and development following the devastation of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. A four meter high photographic scroll covers the entire exhibition space, creating an immersive experience that engages the physical senses of viewers.

    Both Yamashiro and Shiga will present ambitious works that represent new developments for them as well as a continuation of themes that have occupied them until now. The strong visual and auditory experiences of their powerful large-scale installations encourage deep contemplation.

    YAMASHIRO Chikako, Recalling(s), 2025. ©Chikako Yamashiro. Courtesy of the artist
    YAMASHIRO Chikako, Recalling(s), 2025.
    ©Chikako Yamashiro. Courtesy of the artist
    SHIGA Lieko, Don’t Go, Come Back, 2025. ©Lieko Shiga. Courtesy of the artist
    SHIGA Lieko, Don’t Go, Come Back, 2025.
    ©Lieko Shiga. Courtesy of the artist
    Shiga’s photographic narrative visualizes the Tohoku and Sanriku region coastline, the progression from sea to land, as evocative of how we humans find our way in human society. She critically examines the historical view of progress and energy and, with the phrase nanumokanumo, an expression that includes the meaning “anything and everything” in northern Miyagi Prefecture dialect, explores how the human spirit, society, and community continue to be unsettled, regardless of reconstruction and development following the devastation of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. A four meter high photographic scroll covers the entire exhibition space, creating an immersive experience that engages the physical senses of viewers.

    Both Yamashiro and Shiga will present ambitious works that represent new developments for them as well as a continuation of themes that have occupied them until now. The strong visual and auditory experiences of their powerful large-scale installations encourage deep contemplation.

  • 3
    Two artists in dialogue with the Ishibashi Foundation Collection
    YAMASHIRO Chikako, Recalling(s), 2025. ©Chikako Yamashiro. Courtesy of the artist
    YAMASHIRO Chikako, Recalling(s), 2025.
    ©Chikako Yamashiro. Courtesy of the artist
    Yamashiro Chikako and Shiga Lieko, two noted artists on the international art scene, selected Ishibashi Foundation Collection works to engage with for their new creations. The collaborations convey expanded context and heightened understanding of the Foundation Collection.
    YAMASHIRO Chikako, Recalling(s), 2025. ©Chikako Yamashiro. Courtesy of the artist
    YAMASHIRO Chikako, Recalling(s), 2025.
    ©Chikako Yamashiro. Courtesy of the artist
    SHIGA Lieko, Flipped Ship DAIGORO (detail), 2025. ©Lieko Shiga. Courtesy of the artist
    SHIGA Lieko, Flipped Ship DAIGORO (detail), 2025.
    ©Lieko Shiga. Courtesy of the artist
  • Collection
    A total of four works selected by Yamashiro and Shiga from the approximately 3000 works of the Ishibashi Foundation Collection will be on display.
    Ginger Riley MUNDUWALAWALA, The Four Archers, 1994, Artizon Museum, Ishibashi Foundation. © The Estate of Ginger Riley / Copyright Agency, Australia
    Ginger Riley MUNDUWALAWALA,
    The Four Archers, 1994, Artizon Museum, Ishibashi Foundation.
    © The Estate of Ginger Riley / Copyright Agency, Australia
    Alberto GIACOMETTI, Walking Man, Artizon Museum, Ishibashi Foundation
    Alberto GIACOMETTI, Walking Man,
    Artizon Museum, Ishibashi Foundation
Artists
  • YAMASHIRO Chikako
    YAMASHIRO Chikako
    Photo: Ryudai Takano

    Contemporary video artist. Born in Okinawa.

    Her works in photography, video and performance create visual investigations into the history, politics and culture of her homeland Okinawa. In recent years, she has taken the issue of Okinawa as a universal proposition that does not stop there, and has used the overlooked history and people of the East Asian region as her subject matter, her activities and thinking focus on the themes of identity, the boundary between life and death, and the inheritance of the memories and experiences of others. Recent solo exhibitions include: Song of the Land (Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian, Lisbon, Portugal, 2024–25), Flowers of Belau (Marugame Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art, Kagawa, 2023), Reframing the land/mind/body-scape (Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, 2021), Chinbin Western (Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee, UK, 2021).

    Future Exhibition
    Yamashiro Chikako’s works from this exhibition will be shown in late January 2026 in different form at the Naha Cultural Arts Theater NAHArt Large Hall (3-26-27 Kumonji, Naha City, Okinawa Prefecture).
    (Note: the current exhibition is not a traveling exhibition)

    The Naha Cultural Arts Theater NAHArt

    The Naha Cultural Arts Theater NAHArt, opened in 2021, introduces new works in performing arts and a range of other genres. In commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, NAHArt plans to hold installations and performance in the theater space.
    https://nahart.jp

  • SHIGA LiekoSHIGA Lieko
    SHIGA Lieko

    Photographer. Born in Aichi, 1980.

    Shiga moved to Miyagi prefecture in 2008. There, while encountering people who lived there, she continued her work, exploring themes such as the ties between human society and nature, and memories going back generations.
    In 2011, after the Great East Japan Earthquake and its aftermath, she was overwhelmed by the experience of “recovery” — a déjà vu of Japan’s high-growth period. She began tracing it back to the roots of the human psyche, expressing it through a variety of works. Her major solo exhibitions include Human Spring (Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, 2019), Blind Date (Marugame Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art, Kagawa, 2017), Canary (Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam, 2013), and RASENKAIGAN (Sendai Mediatheque, 2012–13).

    Future Exhibition
    Shiga Lieko’s works presented in this exhibition are scheduled to be shown in a different form at the Aomori Museum of Art in 2026 (fall/winter).
    (Note: the current exhibition is not a traveling exhibition)

    The Aomori Museum of Art

    Since its opening on July 13, 2006, the Aomori Museum of Art has introduced a wide range of art drawing on the rich nature of Aomori Prefecture. Adjacent to the Museum is the Sannai-Maruyama Jomon site, one of the largest Jomon settlement sites in Japan.
    https://www.aomori-museum.jp/en/