I spent my one allotted minute inside Yayoi Kusama's brand new infinity room trying to take a good Instagram. Regrets! Instagram is an oddly fitting medium for proliferating the work of an artist whose lifelong themes include self-reflection and endless, obsessive repetition, but still, do not do this. Taking a photo in that magical, mind-altering space—a mirrored chamber filled with hundreds of pulsating LED lights—felt on par with taking a phone call in a yoga class.
Yes, there will be things you want to photograph at the new Kusama show. The exhibition, which opened at David Zwirner in New York last week, includes 27 new square-format canvases, for the most part measuring over six feet, all of which are covered in delirium-inducing acrylic doodles. Recurring motifs include eyes and human profiles, repeated, as is Kusama's style, until the representational becomes non-representational and the colors swirl like the bright spots you see walking inside on a sunny day.
The show is titled I Who Have Arrived in Heaven, reflecting both the artist's longstanding interest in cosmic realms and the autobiographical threads that run through the work. This title echoes one of Kusama's much-quoted sound bites: "If it were not for art, I would have killed myself a long time ago." The sentiment perfectly sums up the show's balance of manic happiness and happy mania. In the video installation Manhattan Suicide Addict, Kusama sings a melancholic song—based on her 1978 semi-autobiographical novel of the same name—about antidepressants, among other things. A reminder that bright colors and polka dots are as much about escapism as they are about joy.
Nothing communicates this more clearly that the exhibition's second infinity room, Love is Calling. I wanted to live in this installation. The piece, which debuted in Tokyo earlier this year, is a darkened mirrored room populated with inflatable glowing polka-dotted tentacles. Just take a second to drink in that image. Then go experience it for yourself.
Through December 21
DAVID ZWIRNER
519, 525, & 533 West 19th Street
New York, NY
MAP![]()
Love Is Calling (2013)
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I'm sorry, but I did this. Infinity Mirrored Room—The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away (2013).
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The Way to My Love, 2013. Acrylic on canvas. 76 3/8 x 76 3/8 inches (194 x 194 cm).![]()
Yayoi Kusama. Courtesy David Zwirner, Victoria Miro Gallery, Ota Fine Arts, Yayoi Kusama Studio Inc.![]()
Mystery of the Universe, 2013. Acrylic on canvas. 76 3/8 x 76 3/8 inches (194 x 194 cm). Courtesy David Zwirner and Yayoi Kusama Studio Inc.
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My Heart, 2013. Acrylic on canvas. 76 3/8 x 76 3/8 inches (194 x 194 cm). Courtesy David Zwirner and Yayoi Kusama Studio Inc
Yes, there will be things you want to photograph at the new Kusama show. The exhibition, which opened at David Zwirner in New York last week, includes 27 new square-format canvases, for the most part measuring over six feet, all of which are covered in delirium-inducing acrylic doodles. Recurring motifs include eyes and human profiles, repeated, as is Kusama's style, until the representational becomes non-representational and the colors swirl like the bright spots you see walking inside on a sunny day.
The show is titled I Who Have Arrived in Heaven, reflecting both the artist's longstanding interest in cosmic realms and the autobiographical threads that run through the work. This title echoes one of Kusama's much-quoted sound bites: "If it were not for art, I would have killed myself a long time ago." The sentiment perfectly sums up the show's balance of manic happiness and happy mania. In the video installation Manhattan Suicide Addict, Kusama sings a melancholic song—based on her 1978 semi-autobiographical novel of the same name—about antidepressants, among other things. A reminder that bright colors and polka dots are as much about escapism as they are about joy.
Nothing communicates this more clearly that the exhibition's second infinity room, Love is Calling. I wanted to live in this installation. The piece, which debuted in Tokyo earlier this year, is a darkened mirrored room populated with inflatable glowing polka-dotted tentacles. Just take a second to drink in that image. Then go experience it for yourself.
Through December 21
DAVID ZWIRNER
519, 525, & 533 West 19th Street
New York, NY
MAP
Love Is Calling (2013)
I'm sorry, but I did this. Infinity Mirrored Room—The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away (2013).
The Way to My Love, 2013. Acrylic on canvas. 76 3/8 x 76 3/8 inches (194 x 194 cm).
Yayoi Kusama. Courtesy David Zwirner, Victoria Miro Gallery, Ota Fine Arts, Yayoi Kusama Studio Inc.
Mystery of the Universe, 2013. Acrylic on canvas. 76 3/8 x 76 3/8 inches (194 x 194 cm). Courtesy David Zwirner and Yayoi Kusama Studio Inc.
My Heart, 2013. Acrylic on canvas. 76 3/8 x 76 3/8 inches (194 x 194 cm). Courtesy David Zwirner and Yayoi Kusama Studio Inc