two monumental installations take over the hayward gallery
Hayward Gallery in London presents two concurrent exhibitions built around textiles and found objects, Chiharu Shiota: Threads of Life and Yin Xiuzhen: Heart to Heart. On view until May 3rd, 2026, the shows bring together large-scale installations by the two internationally celebrated artists whose practices transform ordinary materials into spatial reflections on memory, identity, and shared human experience. Presented as part of the Southbank Centre’s 75th anniversary program, the exhibitions extend the long-standing focus of the institution on immersive installations that respond to the iconic brutalist architecture of the gallery.
Curated by Hayward Gallery senior curator Yung Ma, the parallel presentations emphasize the distinct trajectories of the two artists while drawing out connections between them. ‘These solo exhibitions celebrate Yin and Shiota’s clearly distinct artistic styles and approaches, reflecting the different generations, places, and teachings that have impacted their work. Yet, these artists can be seen as united by a sensibility – one that elevates their own personal perspectives to reflect on our wider shared experiences,’ Ma explains.
installation view of Chiharu Shiota: Threads of Life. During Sleep (2026) | image by Mark Blower, courtesy of the Hayward Gallery. © DACS, London, 2026 and Chiharu Shiota
chiharu shiota’s immersive webs of memory
Berlin-based Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota occupies the Hayward Gallery’s upper level with her first major solo exhibition in a London public gallery. Known for expansive installations composed of thousands of interlaced wool threads, Shiota constructs immersive environments that envelop everyday objects such as beds, keys, chairs or clothing that evoke invisible emotional connections and the fragile ties between life, memory and loss.
The exhibition includes new iterations of several large-scale installations, including The Locked Room (2016) and During Sleep (2002), where dense webs of thread stretch from floor to ceiling, creating cocoon-like spaces visitors can walk through. Often working primarily with red, black or white wool, Shiota describes the process as drawing in space with thread.
‘This exhibition reflects the often-hidden connections between us, with each thread becoming a trace of our shared existence, weaving visible forms from the invisible threads of life. Through my work, I try to make sense of life and its uncertainties; each installation has grown from personal experiences, such as losing my father, facing death and questioning what it means to be human,’ Chiharu Shiota notes.‘While we live our lives separately, we are, at the same time, deeply connected. With this exhibition, I want to highlight the marvelous aspects of ordinary existence,’
Alongside the installations, Threads of Life presents early performance documentation and a large body of drawings produced in collaboration with writer Yoko Tawada. For Tawada’s newspaper series The Trainee (2023–24), Shiota created roughly 400 watercolor and charcoal drawings stitched with her characteristic red threads, extending her spatial vocabulary into intimate works on paper.
installation view of Chiharu Shiota: Threads of Life. Letters of Thanks (2026) | image by Mark Blower, courtesy of the Hayward Gallery. © DACS, London, 2026 and Chiharu Shiota.
yin xiuzhen’s installations built from everyday life
Across the gallery’s lower level, Yin Xiuzhen presents the first major UK survey of her work. Spanning more than three decades, Heart to Heart brings together installations, sculpture, photography, video, and archival materials alongside new commissions created for the exhibition. A key figure in contemporary Chinese art since the early 1990s, Yin developed her practice amid the sweeping economic and social transformations of China during that period. Her work often employs familiar objects and industrial materials, from cement and ceramics to personal clothing, to explore how memory and identity accumulate within everyday things.
The title of the exhibition comes from a newly commissioned installation shaped like a human heart, constructed from donated used clothing. Visitors are invited to step inside the structure, transforming it into a shared space where personal histories converge. The garments carry traces of individual lives, while the overall form suggests the collective body that emerges from them.
‘The heart is our human engine and, in my culture, it transcends the mind. ‘Heart-to-heart’ is a way to connect and I am delighted to have this chance to engage in a heart-to-heart dialogue with visitors of the Hayward Gallery, drawing on my thirty-plus years of practice; this exhibition is an opportunity for mutual exchange, one I hope will generate sparks,’ Yin Xiuzhen explains.
installation view of Chiharu Shiota: Threads of Life. Letters of Thanks (2026)| image by Mark Blower, courtesy of the Hayward Gallery. © DACS, London, 2026 and Chiharu Shiota.
installations that transform architecture into experience
For Hayward Gallery director Ralph Rugoff, the pairing of the two artists continues the gallery’s tradition of presenting installations that interact with its architecture. ‘Continuing the Gallery’s legacy of showcasing artists whose installations interact with the Hayward’s iconic architecture, this is a very exciting and moving pair of exhibitions.’ he shares. ‘Both Yin and Shiota elevate humble, everyday materials into profound and poetic artistic statements. Exploring the tension between personal and collective memory and the transience of contemporary life, each artist’s work emphasises intimacy through tactile traces of human presence, while their immersive installations draw audiences into reflective, almost meditative spatial interactions. Transforming the objects we live with and leave behind, each artist offers a deeply human and emotionally charged experience.’ Together, the two exhibitions reveal parallel artistic strategies emerging from different cultural contexts. Shiota’s thread installations visualize invisible networks of connection, while Yin’s material assemblages embed lived histories within physical objects. Both artists ultimately transform the familiar, thread, clothing, furniture, personal belongings, into immersive environments that ask visitors to reflect on how individual lives intersect within larger social and emotional structures.
installation view of Chiharu Shiota: Threads of Life. Threads of Life (2026) | image by Mark Blower, courtesy of the Hayward Gallery. © DACS, London, 2026 and Chiharu Shiota.
installation view of Chiharu Shiota: Threads of Life. Threads of Life (2026) | image by Mark Blower, courtesy of the Hayward Gallery. © DACS, London, 2026 and Chiharu Shiota.
