PRINTCatalogue Note:
“The way I see it, by living in a contemporary position, I’m just attempting to breath
in the atmosphere of the times and wanting to open up a bright red flower for the future.
It’s the same as the butterfly seeking out the barren mountains for its final destination
before death, the silkworm spitting out its silk in spring, or the flowers showing
off their vitality in brilliant colours.”
- Yayoi Kusama, Mugen no Ami : Yayoi Kusama Jiden
When Yayoi Kusama left for the United States at the age of 28, she might have simply sought sought to break free from her mother’s grip and her country’s conservatism. As she has said herself, the Yayoi Kusama we know today wouldn’t be around if it weren’t for the US. For her, the fateful decision to move on to America remains one of the most critical moments of her life. Yayoi Kusama’s works range from painting and sculpture, to performance art, installation, and film, containing different methods and elements from pop art, feminism, surrealism, native art, abstract expressionism, and happenings. She heals herself through art and demonstrates her rich artistic life with a significant and continuous daily practice that soothes the spirit and extends a collaborating hand across disciplines.
“With just one polka dot, nothing can be achieved. In the universe, there is the sun, the moon, the earth, and hundreds of millions of stars,” the artist has mused. “Pursuing the philosophy of the universe through art under such circumstances has led me to what I call stereotypical repetition.”- Yayoi Kusama
She hoped that people of different backgrounds would begin attempting to explore the realm of all that is possible and prioritise creative thought in the plastic arts to make room for new creative and playful potential in arts and cultural spaces. Her work became a sensation as it bounced between art and design and took form as the most alluring of contemporary plastic arts: a multitude of dots that cover the surfaces of all kinds of things, from walls and floors, to canvases, objects, and bodies, even the artist herself. Repeated lines of dots extend into infinity, creating confusion about what a space actually is, and leading the viewer to unconsciously fall into a dizzied state, unsure of how to distinguish the reality from the illusion. This work, “Love-Forever”, contains Yayoi Kusama’s classic imagery and dots. A densely coloured, monochromatic polka dot pattern fills the work and is repeated to the point of producing a certain dizzy, hypnotic feeling. Its vivid colour goes beyond our visual experience and seems to spread through the cosmos. As her hallucinations are combined with real experiences, environments, and material things, her ego enters an infinite plane, forming a world that floats totally on its own. It is a perfect presentation of what makes the work of Yayoi Kusama truly original, and the everproliferating, deforming dots can be thanked for having spurred a breakthrough in the plastic arts and making this work an undeniable ‘Yayoi Kusama’.
in the atmosphere of the times and wanting to open up a bright red flower for the future.
It’s the same as the butterfly seeking out the barren mountains for its final destination
before death, the silkworm spitting out its silk in spring, or the flowers showing
off their vitality in brilliant colours.”
- Yayoi Kusama, Mugen no Ami : Yayoi Kusama Jiden
When Yayoi Kusama left for the United States at the age of 28, she might have simply sought sought to break free from her mother’s grip and her country’s conservatism. As she has said herself, the Yayoi Kusama we know today wouldn’t be around if it weren’t for the US. For her, the fateful decision to move on to America remains one of the most critical moments of her life. Yayoi Kusama’s works range from painting and sculpture, to performance art, installation, and film, containing different methods and elements from pop art, feminism, surrealism, native art, abstract expressionism, and happenings. She heals herself through art and demonstrates her rich artistic life with a significant and continuous daily practice that soothes the spirit and extends a collaborating hand across disciplines.
“With just one polka dot, nothing can be achieved. In the universe, there is the sun, the moon, the earth, and hundreds of millions of stars,” the artist has mused. “Pursuing the philosophy of the universe through art under such circumstances has led me to what I call stereotypical repetition.”- Yayoi Kusama
She hoped that people of different backgrounds would begin attempting to explore the realm of all that is possible and prioritise creative thought in the plastic arts to make room for new creative and playful potential in arts and cultural spaces. Her work became a sensation as it bounced between art and design and took form as the most alluring of contemporary plastic arts: a multitude of dots that cover the surfaces of all kinds of things, from walls and floors, to canvases, objects, and bodies, even the artist herself. Repeated lines of dots extend into infinity, creating confusion about what a space actually is, and leading the viewer to unconsciously fall into a dizzied state, unsure of how to distinguish the reality from the illusion. This work, “Love-Forever”, contains Yayoi Kusama’s classic imagery and dots. A densely coloured, monochromatic polka dot pattern fills the work and is repeated to the point of producing a certain dizzy, hypnotic feeling. Its vivid colour goes beyond our visual experience and seems to spread through the cosmos. As her hallucinations are combined with real experiences, environments, and material things, her ego enters an infinite plane, forming a world that floats totally on its own. It is a perfect presentation of what makes the work of Yayoi Kusama truly original, and the everproliferating, deforming dots can be thanked for having spurred a breakthrough in the plastic arts and making this work an undeniable ‘Yayoi Kusama’.