Longing for the Stars

About this work

A small work painted on a circular panel 130 mm across in the materials of Japanese painting, gold leaf and mineral pigments. Chiba's practice turns on fixing "a momentary phenomenon" onto the picture plane, and here a longing for stars and the heavens appears directly in the title. The gold ground works as a background that quietly supports the motif, creating a deep space within a small circle. It condenses, at a scale that sits in the palm, the star motifs that have continued since her 2023 solo exhibition "Turning with the Stars".