ART-PRESENTATION: Yayoi Kusama-Infinity Mirrored Room
In 1965, Yayoi Kusama began utilizing mirrors to transcend the physical limitations of her own productivity and achieve the repetition that is crucial to her paintings and Accumulations. Sculptural, architectural, and performative, these installations blur the line between artistic disciplines and create a participatory experience by casting the visitor as the subject of the work.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: The Broad Archive
In the exhibition “Infinity Mirrors”, are on presentation six of Yayoi Kusmama’s most iconic kaleidoscopic environments “Infinity Mirror Rooms”, alongside large-scale installations and key paintings, sculptures and works on paper. Except from the artist’s milestone installation “Infinity Mirror Room-Phalli’s Field (Floor Show)”, (1965/2016) a dense and dizzying field of hundreds of red-spotted phallic tubers in a room lined with mirrors, the exhibition also includes “Infinity Mirrored Room-Love Forever”, (1966/1994) a hexagonal chamber into which viewers are able to peer from the outside, seeing colored flashing lights that reflect endlessly from ceiling to floor. The work is a re-creation of Kusama’s legendary 1966 mirror room Kusama’s “Peep Show” or “Endless Love Show” , that no longer extist), the mirror panels were used to stage group performances in her studio in the late ‘60s. Kusama’s signature bold polka dots are featured in “Dots Obsession-Love Transformed into Dots” (2007), a domed mirror room surrounded by inflatables suspended from the ceiling. More recent spectacular LED environments, filled with lanterns or crystalline balls that seem to extend into infinite space, are represented by “Infinity Mirrored Room-Aftermath of Obliteration of Eternity” (2009), and “Infinity Mirrored Room-The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away” (2013). A selection of 60 paintings, sculptures, works on paper and archival materials are on view, showcasing several of Kusama’s lesser-known collages, made after her return to Japan in 1973. These works trace the artist’s trajectory from her early surrealist works on paper, “Infinity Net” paintings and “Accumulation” assemblages to recent paintings and soft sculptures, highlighting recurring themes of nature and fantasy, utopia and dystopia, unity and isolation, obsession and detachment, and life and death. The exhibition concludes with Kusama’s iconic participatory installation “The Obliteration Room” (2002- ), an all-white replica of a traditional domestic setting. Upon entering, visitors are invited to cover every surface of the furnished gallery with multicolored polka dot stickers, gradually engulfing the entire space in pulsating color.
Info: Curator: Mika Yoshitake, The Broad, 221 S Grand Ave, Los Angeles, Duration: 21/10/17-1/1/18, Days & Hours (for this exhibition only): Tue-Wed 11:00-19:00, Thu-Fri 10:00-21:00, Sat-Sun 9:00-22:00, Sun 9:00-20:00, www.thebroad.org
