PARADISE: films by Chiemi Shimada
Screening and Q&A
Kunstnernes Hus is pleased to present a special screening program of films by London-based artist and filmmaker Chiemi Shimada, in collaboration with Oslo Art Weekend. Working across 16mm, 35mm, Super 8, and digital formats, Shimada traces the textures of memory, family, and everyday ritual—from the Japanese suburbs to the pachinko parlour, from therapeutic kitchens to the thresholds of sleep.
This program brings together five works spanning 2019–2026, including the first public screening of her newest film, offering an intimate survey of an artist attuned to the quiet intensities of lived experience. The screening will be followed by an artist talk with Shimada.
Where
Cinema
Info
The event is free and open for all. Click "buy ticket" to reserve a spot.
Program
At Altitude
2019, 16mm film transferred to HD, colour, sound, 2:44
Made as a pilot for Chiyo, At Altitude is a self-reflexive film documenting Shimada’s brief visit to her grandmother in the Japanese suburbs. Having lived abroad for the past five years, the artist uses a 16mm film camera as a mediating tool through which to reconnect with her grandmother. Through an interplay of interior and exterior spaces, the film offers an intimate reflection on family life, memory, and ageing.
ちよ (Chiyo)
2019, 16mm film transferred to HD, colour, sound, 12:39
Chiyo is a poetic exploration of the Japanese suburbs through the artist's reflection on the life of her grandmother. With a series of everyday moments in Yashio from a summer fair to Buddhist rituals, the film meditates on family, intimacy and ageing.
Oneiric Kitchen
2025, 16mm film transferred to HD, colour, sound, 11:17
Oneiric Kitchen emerges from a collaboration between the artist and wellbeing practitioner Susie Cunningham. Interweaving therapeutic cooking workshops with conversations on rest, the film reflects on the thresholds between sleep and sleeplessness across cultures. It forms part of an ongoing research enquiryinto the phenomenon of sleep and the complexities of sleep disorders.
PARADISE
2020, 35mm film photographs transferred to HD, colour, sound, 5:13Inspired by the pachinko chapter from Roland Barthes’ book The Empire of Signs, PARADISE explores the enmeshed relationship between labour, capitalism and play through kaleidoscopic visions of a pachinko parlour and polyphonic voices.
Artist Bio
Chiemi Shimada is a London-based artist and filmmaker. Working across film, performance, installation, and workshop, she explores and interrogates memory, liminal states, and late-stage capitalism. Her work has been presented in galleries, museums and film festivals internationally, including International Film Festival Rotterdam, Open City Documentary Festival, Arkipel, Courtisane Festival, and at the ICA London, Barbican, LUX, the National Archives of Singapore, Cafe Oto, and Cineteca Nacional México.
Shimada is also part of the group exhibition "Short Circuit" at Pachinko Oslo.
