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YAYOI KUSAMA:MIRRORED YEARSEducation Kit

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CONTENTS03 IntroductIon Ways to use this kit curriculum connections

05 ArtIst BIogrAphy

06 ArtIst, World And Art tImelIne

07 ArtIst stAtement By yAyoI KusAmA

08 exhIBItIon overvIeW

09 Key exhIBItIon themes: •RepetitionandAccumulation:AVisualLanguage •AbstractionandRepresentation •Infinity •Self-Obliteration

11 cAse study 1: ArtIst As ArtWorK: yAyoI KusAmA •Visions •Identity •Artist’sPractice:ExhibitionandPerformance •CriticalResponse •CaseStudyFocusQuestions

16 ArtWorK AnAlysIs •The Moment of Regeneration (2004) •Infinity Netpaintings •Women Waiting for Spring (TZW) (2005) from Love Forever(2004-07) •Walking Piece (1966)

20 CASESTUDY2:INFINITESPACE:YAYOIKUSAMAANDINSTALLATION •Background •CreatingtheIllusionofSpace:Infinity Mirror Room- Phalli’s Field (Floor Show) (1965) •RemakingaVision: I’m Here, but Nothing (2000) •InsighttoanEarlierPractice:Untitled (Mother) c.1939 •CaseStudyFocusQuestions

25 LEARNINgIDEASANDFOCUSQUESTIONS

27 glossAry

30 FURThERREADINgANDRESOURCES

32 AcKnoWledgements

Previous page: Yayoi Kusama FLOWERING NEW YORK [OPRT] (detail) 2005 from the series Love Forever 2004-07silkscreenoncanvasCourtesytheartist,VictoriaMirogallery,LondonandOtaFineArts,Tokyo©theartist

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INTRODUCTIONThis resource has been produced by MCA Learning to support the exhibition Yayoi Kusama: Mirrored Years. It is

aimed at teachers and students from Primary to Secondary levels and can be adapted for Tertiary studies. It is

designed for students of Visual Arts, Photographic and Digital Media. It is also relevant for English especially for the

study of Visual Literacy.

ThIS RESOURCE OffERS:• Insight into the artistic practice of Yayoi Kusama.

• Analysis on key themes throughout the artist’s career.

• Examines four seminal works included in the exhibition.

• Two focus case studies

• A series of focus questions and activities.

Please note: This exhibition contains images of nudity. Certain exhibition content may not be suitable for younger

audiences, especially Primary students. Teachers can contact MCA Learning for further information.

WAYS TO USE ThIS KIT:The material in this resource is designed to complement a visit to the exhibition and to be used in conjunction with

other exhibition resources. There is a catalogue as well as a reading room located in the exhibition space. Use the

images, activities and ideas to assist with pre-visit preparation, as a guide during the gallery visit and to develop post-

visit activities. Teachers can adapt the artwork analysis and case studies to suit their students’ needs or integrate

areas of this resource into existing classroom units of study.

Key terms in bold are defined and included in the glossary at the end of this kit. A guide to additional publications and

resources has been provided to assist in further study.

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CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:

PRIMARY, SECONDARY (SECONDARY CAN bE ADAPTED fOR TERTIARY).

For Secondary audiences the study of artworks in a gallery environment during their class visits to the MCA provides

a valuable learning opportunity. Students can explore the Conceptual Framework and study the Frames through

engaging with the works on display as well as engaging with the development of an artist’s Body of Work.

Teachers are encouraged to adapt syllabus links from the list below to suit the system of their school’s state. Please

use this list as a starter for planning, or talk to MCA Learning staff for further ideas.

VISUAL ARTS/ CREATIVE ARTS• The role of the Curator

• The role of the Contemporary Museum

• Working in a series, developing a body of work

• Conceptual framework- Artist, Artwork, Audience, World

• Exposure to a range of artistic practice

• Diversity of media and techniques

• Artist’s Practice

ENgLISh• Analysing Visual Texts

• Oral and research skills

• Response to visual stimuli

• Creative writing and response

• Critical essays and reviews

PhOTOgRAPhIC AND DIgITAL MEDIA• Allusions to popular culture including film

• The photographic portrait and self-portrait

• Photography and film as documentation- truth and artifice

• The moving image- video and installation

• Multimedia presentations

SOCIETY AND ENVIRONMENT• Visual Arts as reflection of contemporary culture

• Visual arts as reflection of cultural and personal identity

ESL/ NESb/ CALD• Developing a visual arts vocabulary list

• Written and oral responses

• Cultural identity and issues in the visual arts

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ARTIST bIOgRAPhY

Yayoi Kusama was born in 1929, in Matsumoto City in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. She grew up whilst the country was

at war and part of her adolescence was spent sewing parachutes on the home front. Following the war, Kusama

became an art student studying the traditional form of Nihonga painting, a formal Japanese technique using ground

pigment and animal glues. Her interests began to shift from this tradition as she began exploring her visions and

hallucinations through her artwork. She recalls experiencing these phenomena as early as ten years old, one day,

looking at a red flower-patterned table cloth on the table, I turned my eyes to the ceiling and saw the same red flower

pattern everywhere, even on the window glass and posts.1

In 1957 she moved to New York where she quickly emerged as an exciting young artist with her large Infinity Net

canvases, first exhibited at Brata Gallery in 1959. Kusama’s work continued to develop through accumulation and

aggregation of patterns and objects. Her painting and sculptural works were extended into sensory environments,

such as the early Infinity Mirror Room-Phalli’s Field (1965). She also staged significant performances and happenings

across New York in the 1960s that addressed social and political concerns of the time. At the 1966 Venice Biennale,

she exhibited Narcissus Garden, 1,500 mirrored spheres in the gardens outside the main pavilion.

After consecutive bouts of illness, Kusama returned to Tokyo, Japan in 1973. Her practice diversified to include written

composition whilst she underwent treatment for ‘rijin’sho’ or depersonalization syndrome. In 1977 she moved into

the Seiwa Hospital, Tokyo and today and continues to maintain a flourishing studio practice in close proximity to the

institution. The extraordinary breadth of Kusama’s artistic career continues to be exhibited, including a work and

performance at the 1993 Venice Biennale. Recent solo exhibitions have been held at Museum of Modern Art, New

York (1998), National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo (2004-05) and the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam,

Netherlands (2008).

YayoiKusamaandThe Earth in Late Summer 2004Styrol,wood,cloth,paint,setof50,225x450x18cmoverallCourtesytheartist,VictoriaMirogalley,LondonandOtaFineArts,Tokyo

1. Hoptman, L. Tatehata, A. Kultermann, U. Yayoi Kusama. Phaidon Press Ltd, London, 2000. Pg 35

ARTWORLD & WORLD1924: Surrealism founded by Andre Breton in Paris, France.

1930: The Great Depression

1939: World War II Begins

1941: Japanese bomb Pearl Harbour, Hawaii.

1945: Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. World War II ends.

c.1946: Abstract Expressionist movement begins in New York, United States.

c.1950: Pop Art movement gains strength in United States.

1956: Videotape invented

1962: Andy Warhol presents silkscreen One Dollar Bill works at Green Gallery’s group show , New York.

(Sept) 1962: Claes Oldenburg exhibits first series of soft sculptures at Green Gallery, New York.

c.1962: Minimalism resurfaces as a movement in reaction to Abstract Expressionism.

1965: Vietnam War begins.

1966: ‘Mirror Room’ by Lucas Samaras

c.1966: Women’s Liberation movement begins.

1967: Referendum to allow Indigenous Australians to vote.

1969: First man on the moon.

1970: The Female Eunuch by Germaine Greer published.

1973: Vietnam war ends. First Sydney Biennale

1974: ‘White Australia’ policy abolished by parliament.

1981: AIDS first identified

1989: Tianamen Square Massacre, China. Berlin wall come down, Germany.

1993: Marcel Duchamp retrospective exhibition, Venice.

1997: Beginning of Asian economic crisis. The Controversial Sensation Exhibition is shown at the Royal Academy of Art, London. Tours to Berlin and New York.

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TIMELINEYAYOI KUSAMA1929: Born in Nagano Prefecture, Japan.

1939: Remembers having first series of visions and hallucinations (Age 10). Produced the drawing Untitled (Mother).

1942-48: Training and practice in traditional Nihonga painting.

1948-51: Studied at the Arts and Crafts School, Kyoto Japan.

1955: Written correspondence with American artist Georgia O’Keefe.

1957: Moved to United States to live and work, arriving first in Seattle.

1957-58: Arrived in new York and began studying at the Art Students League.

1959: First exhibition of Infinity Net paintings at Brata Gallery, New York.

1962: Exhibits Accumulation soft sculptures at Green Gallery’s group show, New York. Is the only female to take part in the widely acclaimed Nul (Zero) exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.

1963: Aggregation: One Thousand Boats show at Gertrude Stein Gallery, New York.

1964: Driving Image Show. First environment exhibited at Castellane Gallery, New York.

1965: Infinity Mirror Room (Phalli’s Field). Begins first series of performances.

1966: Presents Narcissus Garden at the 33rd Venice Biennale.

c.1966: Walking Piece

1967-69: Stages happenings and performance across New York.

1973: Returns to Japan.

1977: Takes residence in Seiwa Hospital, Tokyo Japan. 1989: Began publishing collected poems and literary works.

1993: Selected to represent Japan at the Venice Biennale. Presents Infinity Mirror Room (Pumpkin).

2000: Yayoi Kusama retrospective exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery, London.

2001-2: Yayoi Kusama exhibition at Le Consortium, Dijon, France. Toured to Denmark and Korea.

2004-07: Love Forever series.

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This letter was written by Yayoi Kusama especially for her exhibition at the museum of Contemporary Art. It was

a spontaneous and generous gesture made by the artist to all visitors experiencing her exhibition in Sydney. The

Museum has displayed Kusama’s text within the exhibition. An original version in Japanese is also available.

MY MESSAgE TO ThE WORLD: ‘LOVE fOREVER’ When I was about ten years old, I began painting pictures and making sculpture-like objects by lining up small pebbles

from a river behind my parents’ house on the dried river bed. These are the origins of the forms that I have been

creating throughout my life ever since I can remember, giving it my all. I have been treading a long path of my forever-

shining life seeking the truth, evolving continually. All my life I have had aspirations for world peace and love, with a deep

and passionate ‘hymn of praise to humanity’.

During this process, I always envision the continual and repetitive appearances and disappearances of beauty-

generating hallucinations that well up in my mind. I named this phenomenon ‘stereotypical repetition’.

During the days of my never-ending life of hard work, I developed a ‘psychosomatic syndrome’ as a result of painting

too many pictures. I have translated this into my work through a large number of diverse themes that include: ‘Prisoner

Behind a Curtain of Depersonalisation’, ‘Sex, Food Obsession’, ‘Aggregated Earth’, ‘Infinite Space of the Universe’,

‘Psychosomatic Art’, ‘Longing for the Universe’, ‘Driving Image’, ‘Cellular Thinking’, ‘Death of Vacuum’, ‘Are There Ends in

the Universe?’ among others. From now until the last day of my life, I will keep developing my creative process and my

artistic philosophy while maintaining an artistic position on everything.

I may be physically getting older, but I am ever so enthusiastic now about creating art work. My consistent avant-

garde approach to art, I think, has exerted a great influence on the art work of American and European artists, as

well as other artists, especially Lucas Samaras’ Mirror Room, Claes Oldenburg’s Soft Sculpture and Andy Warhol’s

Stereotypical Repetition: Cow Wallpaper, in which cow heads are repeatedly shown on posters all over the walls.

These are the historically famous titles Kusama invented. I have been involved in Pop art, Minimal art, Happenings,

Environments, Avant-garde films and others, as well as in Zero in Europe, while pursuing and realising my philosophy

of art.

My ever inexhaustible energies will continue to evolve as long as I live beyond the limit of my body. The incredible beauty

of humanity for which I say ‘Love Forever’. I have been struggling throughout my life with this everlasting message.

I believe my aspirations will not fade away after I am gone and I want to leave it to those interested in my art as a

message from Yayoi Kusama – an eternal wish for ‘peace’ and the renunciation of war based on ‘humanity’.

YAYOI KUSAMA 2009

ARTIST STATEMENTby Yayoi Kusama:

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EXhIbITION OVERVIEW2

This exhibition explores the extraordinary work of Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama. It reveals the coherence of her

practice over many years and highlights the freshness and innovation she brings to themes she has explored

consistently throughout her life.

Kusama’s early sculptures and environments from the 1960s, such as Infinity Mirror Room-Phalli’s Field (1965) and her

films of performances and happenings, are juxtaposed with the artist’s more recent installations, films, paintings and

silkscreen works. The exhibition reflects Kusama’s lifelong obsession with repetition and aggregation, and her visual,

physical and sensory perceptions.

The theme of obliteration by dots recurs throughout Kusama’s life’s work. With discipline and self-control she has

harnessed the visions and hallucinations she has experienced since childhood, to fuel her indefatigable creativity. This

exhibition includes a selection of very early works from her formative years. In these, we recognize dots, nets and other

accumulations that filled the artist’s vision from an early age.

Kusama’s recent installations include Fireflies on the Water, I’m Here but Nothing (2000-) and Invisible Life (all 2000)

where the artist extends the concepts of reflection, repetition, illusion and disorientation.

A new suite of 50 silkscreen works on canvas, Love Forever created between 2004 and 2007, is presented for the first

time in Australia. Like the renowned Infinity Net and Dot paintings, these new works are characterised by obsessive

repetition. The artist has covered every surface in myriad lines, sweeps, figurative and organic forms. Clouds (2008) is

an all-encompassing sculptural environment of gigantic, inflatable forms in a darkened space.

Yayoi Kusama has always been interested in creativity in a broad sense, and has worked across a range of disciplines,

from dance, fashion and design to writing and musical composition as well as her astonishing paintings, bodies of

silkscreen canvases, sculptures and environments seen in this exhibition. Her work has been highly influential to a new

generation of artists and designers, as well as to contemporary visual art and culture. Her extraordinary perception,

originality and uncompromising attitude have helped position Yayoi Kusama as one of the most acclaimed and respected

contemporary artists working today.

JudithBlackall Head, Artistic Programs, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney

Yayoi KusamaClouds 2008 and Stars Infinity (A.B.C) 2003 Installation view, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2009

Yayoi Kusama: Mirrored Years has been organised by Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and is curated by Jaap Guldemond, (Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam) Franck Gautherot, Seungduk Kim (Le Consortium, Dijon). Presented in association with City Gallery Wellington.

2. Modified from the Yayoi Kusama: Mirrored Years curatorial interpretation, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney.

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KEY ThEMESThis section outlines some of the artist’s recurring themes and offers insight into four significant concerns of Kusa-

ma’s art practice. These themes can be used as a basic scaffolding when analysing the artist’s work.

Under each theme, three works that are included in the exhibition are listed to provide direct links between artwork

and practice.

REPETITION AND ACCUMULATION: A VISUAL LANgUAgERepetition refers to the act of composing something again and again, with the overall sense of designs and motifs

in constant re-occurrence. Accumulation involves gathering together, building up and amassing forms and patterns.

In Yayoi Kusama’s practice, repetition and accumulation function as art making techniques. They also function as a

visual language for the viewer to interpret and engage with. For Kusama this visual language has culminated in her

renowned use of dots and nets.

The beginning of the artist’s signature signs and symbols can be seen in early drawings such as Untitled (mother)

c.1939, which Kusama made when she was only 10 years old. The nets had the ability to act like a veil over the canvas and

appeared in early paintings produced in New York from 1959. Through the development of her practice, the application

of dots and nets has been extended to blanket objects, sculptural forms, bodies and entire spaces.

ARTWORKS TO LOOK AT:• Nets Obsession 2002

• Narcissus Garden 1966

• Women (TTWOP) 2005 from the Love Forever series

AbSTRACTION AND REPRESENTATIONKusama’s works have the ability to destabilise the viewer’s experience and allow them to slip between the recognition

of various forms and structures. Her practice involves the abstraction of objects, spaces, environments and even

bodies, through techniques like patterning, mirroring and reflecting. She creates formal relationships with repetitive

symbols and motifs such as the dots, infinity nets and phalli. These symbols also act as investigations into non-

representational forms of identity.

In Kusama’s earlier work, phallic forms protruded from everyday domestic objects to inhabit various environments.

In more recent works such as The Moment of Regeneration (2004), these anthropomorphic objects continue to be

present, however their shapes have been elongated and warped, becoming reminiscent of tentacles or sea creatures.

The dots that obliterated paintings, sculptures and even the body have become more subtly referenced in works such

as Fireflies on the water (2000), where they have been reduced to tiny lights that glow on a never-ending horizon.

ARTWORKS TO LOOK AT:• Fireflies on the Water 2000

• The Moment of Regeneration 2004

• The Earth In Late Summer 2004

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INfINITYInfinity refers to a limitless time, space or distance that cannot be calculated.

Kusama’s early interest in this never-ending capacity can be seen in the Infinity nets paintings begun in New York. The

repetitive, intense patterning of the Infinity net series was eventually extended into full-blown environments. From

1963 Kusama began producing Infinity mirror rooms.

Through these room-based environments and installations, Kusama has continued to explore the concept of infinity

by growing these works in scale and building on their kaleidoscopic effect. Through methods of aggregation, mirroring

and reflecting, Kusama creates a sense of inexhaustible space for the viewer. Their body is continually fragmented and

patterned across the mirrored wall surfaces into infinity and without end.

ARTWORKS TO LOOK AT:• Infinity Mirror Room- Phalli’s Field (or Floor Show) 1965

• Infinity Dots 2007

• Invisible Life 2000

SELf- ObLITERATIONSelf-obliteration refers to Kusama’s attempt to fragment then erase the self through her art. This theme is linked

closely to the idea of infinity and the sense of limitless space and time. Kusama’s self-obliteration is strongly demon-

strated through her application and repetition of dots.

In a number of performances and happenings during the 1960s, she has applied dots in various sizes by sticking them

down as well as painting them on. The artist has covered herself, others, objects and places in a blanket of dots, at-

tempting to dismantle identity and free the self.

She has continued to explore the concept of self-obliteration in her practice through installation works like I’m here,

but Nothing (2000-). The ever-present dots obliterate the living room environment, flattening out the 3-Dimensional

space into a swathe of pattern and repetition.

ARTWORKS TO LOOK AT:• Flower Obsession (Sunflower) 1968

• I’m here, but Nothing 2000

• Soaring Spirit 2008

11portrait yayoi Kusama 2007 courtesy the artist

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1. ARTIST AS ARTWORK: YAYOI KUSAMAThis case study looks at performing the self. It analyses how Kusama has taken on and challenged the role of the artist

in relation to her work the audience and the world. Under each sub-heading there are ‘Secondary Checkpoints’ to

assist with making connections to key syllabus areas.

SECONDARY SYLLAbUS LINKS• Conceptual framework

• Art Historical and Art Critical interpretation

• Artist’s Practice

‘The destination between the self and the world is not fixed but an ever- shifting boundary initiated in childhood and

maintained throughout our lives’3

yayoi Kusama

VISIONSSECONDARY ChECKPOINT• Evidence of Art Critical and Historical writing

Throughout her life Yayoi Kusama has experienced visions and hallucinations of dots nets, patterns and colours. These

visions began when she was a child and she continues to endure these phenomena. Historically, women have been

synonymous with mental illness and references to female hysteria are rampant in the western worlds art history. The

severity of Kusama’s condition and her subsequent visions has been debated. It has been suggested that Kusama is

either an artist who is prolific, ahead of her time and has staged critical feminist interventions, or that her ongoing

artistic practice is evidence of the artists savvy self-publicising.4

The Surrealist artist Salvador Dali pioneered what he called a ‘paranoiac- critical method’ in his practice. This was

essentially a form of controlled hallucination that allowed the artist to document his subconscious through his art

making. Like Dali, Kusama’s visions were critical in the development of her visual language. The dots and nets are at

the core of her practice and have become iconic symbols, allowing Kusama to re-create, re-interpret and analyse

her visions through her art making. Rather than being a controlling ailment they have become a driving force in her

art practice.

IDENTITYSECONDARY ChECKPOINT• Post-Modern and Cultural Frames

• Conceptual Framework: ARTIST- ARTWORK- WORLD relationship

• Artist’s Practice

Kusama is an artist who has fashioned and inserted her eccentric persona and identity into her works, forcing them

to become inextricably linked. As an artist, Kusama has also experimented with a large number of creative forms and

disciplines, including writing and composition, dance, fashion and design. Photographic documentation of Kusama’s

works is scarcely featured without the artist posing or performing, this creates a very unique dialogue between artist

and artwork where one does not exist without the other. These images have been frequently used for publicity purposes

and a number of self-portraits have been produced for this purpose as well. Playing on the artists’ fascination and

obsession with narcissism, the MCA has chosen one of the artist’s self-portraits for the marketing campaign for Yayoi

Kusama: Mirrored Years.

3. Posner, Helaine. Negotiating boundaries in the art of Yayoi Kusama, Ana Mendieta and Francesca Woodman. (edt.) Chadwick, Whitney. Mirror Images: women, surrealism and self-representation, MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, London, 1998 pp 159 4. Applin, Jo. Resisting Infinity. Yayoi Kusama. Victoria Miro, London, 2008.

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By posing in and amongst her object and environment works in the 1960s, Kusama drew comparisons to the feminine

clichés of young, beautiful, innocent and exotic. She has continued to use performance to experiment with these

clichés throughout her career, examining her gender as well as her cultural background. These investigations of

personal identity share a number of values with Surrealism, including disjunction, multiplicity and rupture.5 The artist

largely explored these values during her period of living and working in New York. In works such as Walking Piece (c.1966)

Kusama deals with the struggle to adapt to changes of self and environment and as a Japanese woman artist, she

addresses feelings of isolation and cultural displacement.

EXhIbITION & PEfORMANCESECONDARY ChECKPOINT• Post-Modern practice

• Range and diversity of artistic practice

In addition to painting, sculpture, installation and environments, Kusama’s early practice involved a number of

performances and happenings throughout the 1960s. These examined the artist’s personal, social and political

concerns whilst illustrating her ability to engage with multiple creative forms. Kusama’s presence at two Venice

Biennales can attest to the artist’s strong links with performance and how she has challenged the role of the artist

by incorporating herself into her work.

In 1966 when the artist first participated in the Venice Biennale she presented Narcissus Garden outdoors, next

to the Italian pavilion. Kusama was not officially selected for the exhibition but was welcomed to exhibit the 1,500

stainless steel spheres outside, the renowned Italian artist Lucio Fontana loaned her money to make the balls. The

controversy arose when Kusama began selling the individual mirrored spheres of the work, stating to onlookers

you can buy “your narcissism”. Whilst the work and performance was shut down by Biennale officials, Kusama had

successfully critiqued the growing trend of art festivals and fairs that pushed the buying and selling of art as a

commodity. As the artist, selling off her own work, she astonished viewers, collectors and galleries through this

defiant act.

As the official representative for Japan in 1993, Kusama made a direct reference back to Narcissus Garden and her

controversial performance, with the work Mirror Room (Pumpkin) (1993). Kusama produced small orange pumpkin-like

sculptures, reminiscent of the multiple chrome spheres of Narcissus Garden. She then performed in a corresponding

costume, within the space, offering the pumpkin-like sculptures to viewers as they entered.

Left: Yayoi Kusama at the 33rd Venice Biennale with Narcissus Garden 1966 1,500 stainless steel spheresMiddle and Right: Yayoi Kusama Narcissus Garden 1966 Installation view, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2009

5. Op, cit. Posner. pp 158

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RELATIONShIP TO fEMINISMSECONDARY ChECKPOINT• Post-Modern practice: Questioning traditional models and concepts

• Conceptual Framework: ARTIST- WORLD relationship

Kusama’s work pre-dates Feminism yet contains multiple references to domesticity and feminist concerns. As the

second wave of Feminism began in the late 1960s there was a lack of adequate critical scaffolding at that time to

contextualise Kusama’s work from a feminist perspective.

Her sculptural works produced during the 1960s we completely covered with accumulations of phalli that protruded

out from furniture, clothing and domestic objects. These accumulations are also evident in installations works such

as Infinity Mirror Room- Phalli’s Field (1965) and Walking on the Sea of Death (1981). They can be seen as an attempt

to challenge male power by appropriating the phallus as a symbol of this power.6 There are similarities between

Kusama’s feminist references and the visceral work of German- American artist Eva Hesse. Hesse’s practice was

concerned with exploring minimalist trends in sculpture using a variety of materials from fibreglass to fabric. Like

Kusama, Hesse’s abstract references to the body were a way of examining gender, sex and power.

Today Kusama’s work has been substantially addressed from a feminist perspective. The more recent rise of

retrospective and survey exhibitions on Kusama’s practice has allowed viewers to be enlightened by her works’

pioneering references to feminism. It has also been considered that much of the feminist undertones in her early

work came from a frustration at the New York art community for allowing men to dominate in theory, criticism

and practice.7

CRITICAL RESPONSESECONDARY ChECKPOINT• Critical interpretation

• Role of the Art Critic

In 1961 Kusama said her need to keep producing her paintings was “a form of my resistance” 8. Kusama’s early minimal

aesthetic can be understood as a partial reaction and opposition towards the reign of Abstract Expressionism in the

New York art scene. Her paintings were captivatingly different from those produced by popular male painters and also

stood as an alternative way of seeing and making art. Following on from her first solo exhibition at Brata Gallery, New

York 1959, artist and critic Donald Judd took notice of Kusama’s work and became an advocate of her practice. Judd

described Kusama’s Infinity Net paintings as being like slabs of “massive, solid lace” and “advanced in concept”.

More recently critic Midori Yamamura has argued that Kusama’s work pre-dated those of a number of significant

pop-artists, including Andy Warhol and Claes Oldenburg. Kusama’s sticker accumulations were being produced from

1962 before Warhol’s famous one-dollar bill works that bore a remarkable likeness in composition. Kusama was

also producing her soft sculptures before Oldenburg’s iconic series of floppy, fabric objects we know. Kusama’s

interaction with these artists was through group exhibitions at places such as Green Gallery and Gertrude Stein,

New York. Midori and Laura Hoptman argue that her early work, and Kusama as an artist, was marginalised for being

female and Japanese.

6. Op, cit. Polaine Pg 162 7. Op, cit. Hoptman. Pg 49-508. Op, cit. Applin.

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CASE STUDY fOCUS QUESTIONS:PRIMARY• As a class, list the types of things Kusama has seen in her visions. When you look at the exhibition make another

list as a class of where you can see these things and what they are on. Try to identify the art form as well as what it’s

covered in. Eg. Nets on paintings, dots on sculptures.

SECONDARY• As a class, list the types of things Kusama has seen in her visions. When you look at the exhibition make another

list as a class of where you can see these things and what they are on. Try to identify the art form as well as what it’s

covered in. Eg. Nets on paintings, dots on sculptures.

• As a class, list the types of things Kusama has seen in her visions. When you look at the exhibition make another

list as a class of where you can see these things and what they are on. Try to identify the art form as well as what it’s

covered in. Eg. Nets on paintings, dots on sculptures.

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The Moment of Regeneration is a sculptural installation comprising of 55 pieces that cluster together in the gallery

space. This series of sprouting, anthropomorphic forms are reminiscent of sea creatures, crawling tentacles or some

kind of unusual plant life.

These sculptural forms are adapted, distorted and re-figured from soft sculpture accumulations in Kusama’s earlier

works, such as Infinity Mirror Room (Phalli’s Field) (1965). Kusama has used urethane casting and wood to manipulate

the scale and shape of these original forms.

The brightly coloured and dotted surfaces of The Moment of Regeneration suggest objects that are animate, exotic

and tropical- their patterning functions like a soft fabric skin that covers each form. For Kusama the polka dot has

signified the sun, the earth and the moon whilst also symbolising the infinity of the universe. She has commented,

Our earth is only one polka dot among a million stars in the cosmos. Polka dots are a way to infinity. When we obliterate

nature and our bodies with polka dot, we become part of the unity of our environment. 9

Whilst the artworks title indicates a sense of renewal and growth in nature, the dots could also symbolise an illness or

an ailment. The polka dotted forms appear to be flourishing from the ground and unfurling towards the gallery ceiling.

The forms could also be considered as a cluster of growths, surging through the concrete floor of the gallery.

The Moment of Regeneration makes reference to both life and death by emphasising these as transitional modes in

nature. The polka dot symbolism emphasises the cyclical motion of the universe, forever turning to renew itself.

SECONDARY ChECKPOINTFRAMESANALYSIS

•STRUCTURAL:Composition,materials,useofsignsandsymbols.

•SUBJECTIVE:Personalopinionandinterpretation.Whatarethesesculpturalformsandwhatdotheyremindyouof?

9.Yoshimoto,Midori.‘PerformingtheSelf:YayoiKusamaandherEver-ExpandingUniverse’.InIntoPerformance:JapanesewomenartistsinNewYork,RutgersUniversityPress,NewBrunswick,NewJerseyandLondon,2005Pg72

Yayoi Kusama The Moment of Regeneration 2004 sewn fabric, urethane, wood, paint, set of 55, dimensions variable Courtesy the artist and Victoria Miro Gallery, London.

17

Kusama has described the Infinity Net paintings as being “without composition- without beginning, end or centre”10.

These works have both an endless sense of pattern and repetition that suggests infinity, whilst also being confined

to the measurements of the canvas. Kusama’s initial series of Infinity nets were the first works she produced in New

York during the late 1950s and early 1960s. The artist employed neutral, white and crème shades of colour to produce

nets that appear almost invisible but begin to softly surface as the viewer approaches the work. What appears to be

monochromatic still remains textured and tonal, with shades of light and dark.

The immense scale (her early works could be up to 10 metres long), contrasts the delicate, minimal yet detailed

patterning of the nets, reminiscent of lace and crochet stitching. Kusama’s choice of scale draws attention to the

labour intensive methods so often involved in her art making and her belief in the artist’s authority over the machine

and emphasis on the hand made. The scale can also be considered a response to the grand canvases being produced

by male Abstract Expressionists of the 1960s. Kusama’s Infinity Nets offered an alternative aesthetic that the artist

considered as an equally important way of seeing and making art.

The Infinity Net paintings are shown alongside Kusama’s infinity dot works. This suggests a meeting of positive and

negative forces (the dots as positive and the nets as negative) and as a result, a sense of balance. This equilibrium

suggests that both Kusama’s signature motifs, the dots and nets, exist in a duality.

SECONDARY ChECKPOINT•Artist working in a series, developing a Body of Work

• Role of the Curator: consider the placement of the works in the gallery space.

Op,cit.Applin.

Left: Yayoi Kusama Infinity-Nets OQABT 2007 (detail), acrylic on canvas, 304 x 540 cm, Collection Foundation Acid Cats, OsloRight: Yayoi Kusama Infinity Dots 2007 (detail), acrylic on canvas, 130 x 162 cm, Private collection, Sydney

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Love Forever is a series of 50 black and white silkscreen print canvases, each printed in an edition of 5. The images

on each canvas move between abstraction and figuration and include female faces in profile, child-like bodies and

long-lashed eyes. Like Kusama’s iconic net and dot paintings, the obsessive repetition and accumulations in the Love

Forever series becomes another form of the artist’s patterning. Their grid like presentation is also a salon style

method of display, emphasising the enormity of the series as well as the labour intensity of her practice. Like a stream

of consciousness, she would work for forty or fifty hours at a time, sketching and doodling obsessively and intensely.

In regards to this series of work Kusama said,

My plan was to display a large number of black and white canvases in a space. In the vocabulary of my generation this is

called ‘environment’. This is an attempt to create a world by showing the rectangular-shaped canvases collectively.11

Yayoi Kusama

In Women Waiting for Spring (TZW) (2005), Kusama has layered multiple feminine profiles that appear absent of

distinguishing features such as dimples, coloured hair or even eyebrows. Instead these faces in profile are filled with

heavily patterned and densely accumulated eyes. These eyes form a blanket covering that obliterates the faces,

suggesting a universal female identity. There are visual links between the Love Forever series and the ‘Imaginary

Portraits’ of artist Joan Miro. His works during the late 1920s and early 30s were suggestive of a similar surreal

landscape with repetitive linear designs, patterning and organic forms.

Kusama initially draws the images onto canvas using a marker pen, the works are then transferred to silkscreen to be

printed. She sights this process as being essential to the durability and conservation of the image.

SECONDARY ChECKPOINTROLE OF THE CONTEMPORARY MUSEUM:

• At the MCA Love Forever is presented in one of the gallery’s double height spaces. The series is hung on all four walls

of the space in accordance to Kusama’s design, in order to create an immersive environment.

11.YayoiKusamainconversationwithglenScottWright.YayoiKusama.VictoriaMiro,London,2008.

Yayoi KusamaWomen Waiting for Spring (TZW) 2005 from the series Love Forever 2004-07silkscreen on canvas130.3 x 162 cmCourtesy the artist and Yayoi Kusama Studio, Tokyo

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Walking Piece (c.1966) sees Kusama traversing the streets of New York in traditional Japanese dress. The original work

was documented in 24 colour slides and each slide is a still image of the unfolding performance. Kusama immediately

draws attention to her isolation by contrasting her exotic, colourful kimono against the faded streets, buildings and

suburbs of New York. The artist’s cultural displacement also highlights issues of race, and gender- at the time both of

these aspects of her identity made it increasingly difficult for success in the art world.

Whilst Walking Piece can be understood as an insight into the isolation felt by the artist, it can also be considered a

commentary on a cultural stereotype. Kusama has assumed the role of the exotic, Oriental woman in the work and

as this feminine cliché, she skirts around the streets under a parasol covered in flowers. Critic Laura Hoptman has

argued that this method of Kusama’s practice uses satire to play up a clichéd female character, whilst also using it to

promote herself as an artist and her artwork.12

In one image, the artist draws distinction between a busy grocery shopfront of advertisements and the delicate

foreign woman she embodies. Against the prices per kilo of green beans and the cost of meat pies, her character

stands out against the mass produced grid of supermarket advertising. In another still, it appears she starts to cry,

covering her face with the sleeves of her kimono she leans against a harsh, grided brick wall.

Walking Piece reveals how Kusama’s persona and identity had become an integral part of her art practice that has

continued to be explored throughout her career and through various other performances and happenings. It is an

example of the artist’s approach to dealing with the subsequent struggles of living and working in foreign environment

whilst successfully examining the role of the artist in providing social and cultural commentary.

SECONDARY ChECKPOINT•Post-ModernPractice

•ConceptualFramework:ARTIST-ARTWORK-WORLDrelationship

12/Op,cit.hoptman.Pg54

Yayoi Kusama Walking Piece 1966 set of 24 colour slides transferred to DVD Courtesy the artist and Yayoi Kusama Studio, Tokyo

20Yayoi Kusama I’m here but Nothing 2000- dot sheet, ultra violet fluorescent light, furniture, household objects, dimensions variable Installation view, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2009

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2. INfINITE SPACE: YAYOI KUSAMA AND INSTALLATION This case study examines two of Kusama’s major installation artworks. It links their development to one of the artist’s

earliest works, demonstrating how these installations are an extension of her drawing, painting and sculpture practice.

bACKgROUNDThe exhibition Yayoi Kusama: Mirrored Years features six selected room environments the artist has produced since

1965. Kusama’s installation practice was a natural extension from her initial painting and sculptural works that explored

her obsession with repetition, accumulation, infinity and self-obliteration. The artist states:

My nets grew beyond myself and beyond the canvases I was covering with them. They began to cover the walls and the

ceiling and finally the whole universe.

Yayoi Kusama, excerpt from an interview with Gordon Brown for WABC radio, 1963

Kusama has previously collaborated with museums, curators, builders, architects and Government bodies to carry out

large-scale works in galleries and public spaces. For the audience, Kusama’s installations allow them to experience a

dizzying and hallucinatory environment, similar to the visions the artist has experienced throughout her life. She creates

illusions of space through techniques like the use of mirrors and the intense repetition of her signature polka dots.

CREATINg ThE ILLUSION Of SPACE: Infinity mirror room- Phalli’s field (floor show) 1965

Infinity Mirror Room- Phalli’s Field (or Floor Show) (1965) is a mirrored environment of reflection, with the floor covered

in a bed of red and white polka dotted soft-sculptural forms. These forms vary in size and protrude upwards and

around, entangling themselves in one another. The reflective mirrored walls and the ground’s plush and colourful

carpet creates the sense of infinity and endless space.

This reflective environment was initially created in her studio, and then exhibited at Castellane Gallery, New York in

1965. As a completely mirrored room alluding to infinite space, Kusama’s work predates artist Lucas Samaras’ Mirrored

room (1966), that included a reflective table and chair setting. Like Kusama, Samaras was also involved in performance,

happenings and installation in New York during the 1960s. Critic Lucy Lippard has spoken of Kusama’s 3-dimensional

environments as having an emphasis on Surrealism and the body.13 Kusama’s Infinity Mirror Room- Phalli’s Field (or Floor

Show) uses tactile sculptural forms and reflective surfaces to entice the viewer into a bizarre sensory experience.

They become part of the work as their image is fragmented across the mirrored walls and obliterated into a patterned

vista. A lost sense of background and foreground is experienced, as both seem to meld into one, dissolving the viewer’s

sense of space.

13.Op,cit.Applin.

Yayoi KusamaInfinity Mirror Room- Phalli’s Field (or Floor Show) 1965sewn stuffed fabric, board, mirror room250 x 455 x 455 cmCourtesy the artist and Yayoi Kusama Studio, Tokyo

22

This installation was remade by the artist in 1998 and has been previously exhibited at the MCA during the 2000

Sydney Biennale and located in the level 1 gallery. The installation has specific dimensions and every time it’s exhibited,

a custom sized space is constructed to house the work. The soft sculptured floor covering is in tiled pieces that are

laid in a grid format, completely blanketing the floor space.

REMAKINg A VISIONI’m here, but nothing (2000)

In a collaboration between Kusama and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, the museum has re-interpreted the

environment I’m here, but nothing (2000). The original artwork simulated a traditional 1950s Japanese living room space

and since 2000 has been multiple versions and interpretations. In 2009 the artist and the MCA have reconfigured I’m

Here, But Nothing as a typical 1950s Australian living room.

The furniture and objects have been sourced across Sydney in order to complete the installation. Rather than

projecting the image of dots onto the furniture, Kusama uses stick- on ultra-violet neon dots that glow under UV

fluorescent light.

150,000 dots were used in the installation and applied by the artist’s studio assistants over 3 days. They completely

cover every surface of the environment, across the walls, over furniture and even on old books and records.

The audience has the opportunity to walk around the setting and absorb the work’s domestic situation that even

obliterated by glowing dots, appears hauntingly empty. In a way the space has contracted a beautiful yet isolating

sickness and the neon dots represent its symptoms. Through this work Kusama makes direct reference to her

psychological condition and the visions she has experienced since childhood. I’m Here, But Nothing allows the audience

to understand a similar state of hallucination that has previously been experienced by the artist. When the viewer

enters the work they experience a flattening out of 3-dimensional space and a sense of obliteration.

Top Left: Installing I’m here, but Nothing, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, February 2009

Top Right: Etsuko Sakurai from the Yayoi Kusama Studio installing fluorescent dots within I’m here, but Nothing, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, February 2009

Bottom left and Right: Yayoi Kusama I’m here but Nothing 2000- dot sheet, ultra violet fluorescent light, furniture, household objects, dimensions variable Installation view, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2009

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INSIghT TO PRACTICE AND PROCESSUntitled (Mother) c.1939

Links between I’m here, but Nothing and the very early work Untitled (mother) c.1939 offer a unique insight into the

development of the artist’s practice. Kusama’s specific choice of a domestic environment in I’m Here, but Nothing

alludes back to the artist’s difficult childhood and the overbearing presence of her mother. Kusama’s choice to

pursue a career as an artist in post-war Japan was not initially supported by her family. Coupled with the visions and

hallucinations that started at a young age, this problematic time in the artist’s life is a significant point investigated

through her art making.

Kusama’s intimate portrait was the beginning of future attempts to understand and examine the idea self-obliteration.

As the exhibition demonstrates, this interest would grow into large-scale paintings, sculptural forms, installations,

environments, performances and happenings staged throughout her career. Completed when Kusama was only 10

years old, Untitled (Mother) is an intimate portrait of the artist’s mother, dressed in a traditional Japanese kimono and

covered with dots. On the reverse there is also a still life drawing of a vase of flowers blanketed in net motifs. As the

earliest work included in the exhibition, this drawing demonstrates the beginnings of a much later visual vocabulary

of dots and nets that would become Kusama’s signature symbols to explore herself and her identity through her art.

SECONDARY ChECKPOINT• Role of the contemporary art museum

• Post-Modern practice: collaboration with institution, re-interpretation of previous work

• Subjective Frame: confused sensory experience of the viewer in Kusama’s environments

Yayoi KusamaUntitled c.1939pencil on paper, 24.8 x 22.5 cmCourtesy the artist and Yayoi Kusama Studio, Tokyo

24

CASE STUDY fOCUS QUESTIONS:PRIMARY• View the work Untitled (c.1939) and identify how the artist has made this work. Who could the portrait be of? What

pattern is covering the portrait? Then view the artwork I’m Here, but Nothing (2000-), where is this pattern and how

has it changed from the drawing?

SECONDARY• Discuss Kusama’s collaboration with the MCA to re-interpret the work I’m Here, But Nothing (2000-). After visiting

the work, list the differences between the typical Australian living room displayed in the work and the contemporary

living space you have a home today. What has changed and what remains the same?

• Describe the relationship between the artwork and the audience in I’m Here, But Nothing (2000). Identify who or what

comprises these agencies in you answer.

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LEARNINg IDEAS &fOCUS QUESTIONSPRIMARYPre- visit:• Look up Japan and the City Matsumoto, Nagano, where Yayoi Kusama was born. What are some of the things that

make Japan different to Australia? And what are some of the similarities between these countries?

• Discuss what is in an art museum and what we are going to see. This can be broadened to why this artist makes

artworks and what she makes them about.

In the gallery:• Whilst moving through the gallery, identify the different types of artworks Yayoi Kusama has made (eg. paintings,

drawings, sculptures). Ask the students to name these forms as they go.

•PRACTICAL ACTIVITY: Visit the work Invisible Life (2000), in a single line move through the corridors. Look closely at

your reflection in the mirrors. Do you look the same or different to how you look in your mirror at home? Sit down

in the gallery and remember what you looked like. On a cut out circle of paper, draw what you remember of your

reflection in the mirrors.

• PRACTICAL ACTIVITY: Visit the work The Moment of Regeneration (2004). Look closely at patterns and colours and

describe these. What could these strange objects be? Get each student to draw an everyday object, place, person or

even their pet and cover them using the polka dot pattern.

Post- visit:• Identify what was seen as a group; what forms (i.e. mediums) did the artist make artworks with? (Eg. paintings,

sculptures etc.)

• What are some of the patterns we looked at? (i.e. dots), how many different ways did the artist use dots? (i.e. on

paintings, on soft sculptures, dots reflected in mirrors etc.)

• PRACTICAL ACTIVITY: Look at the portrait drawing you did in the gallery, when you had to remember what your

reflection looked like in the mirrors of Invisible Life (2000). As a class, cut out lots of different sized and coloured polka

dots, use these dots as well as the portrait dots done in the gallery, to cover a section of your classroom.

26

SECONDARY (Years 7-10)Pre- visit:• Research task: Find out one piece of information on the artist and/or her artworks that would be relevant to each

of the FRAMES and identify why.

For example:

-STRUCTURAL: The artist uses dots and nets in her paintings. –Personal signs/symbols.

-SUBJECTIVE: The artist did live performances and staged “happenings” in New York during the 60s. – An

emotional response to what was going on around her.

-CULTURAL: The artist was born in Japan and studied traditional Japanese painting techniques. – The artist’s

cultural background and identity.

-POST-MODERN: The artist has experimented with costume, fashion and has also written books. – Artist works

with a variety of creative forms.

• As a class, discuss how artists make and develop a body of work, why and how do artists do this? Yayoi Kusama is an

artist who works across a variety of forms, what other artists do you know that make artwork from more than one

medium? (i.e. painting and video, sculpture and installation).

• Revise the structural frame focusing on signs/ symbols and why and how artists develop a visual vocabulary? How

do we look for and identify these?

In the gallery:•ACTIVITY: Focus on one of the artist’s room environments, taking note of the title, size, medium etc. Write a paragraph

analysing it through the structural frame and another paragraph through the subjective frame. Compare and contrast

your responses as a group.

• Look at Narcissus Garden (1966) and Soaring Spirit (2008). Discuss how the artist has employed her visual vocabulary

in these works. What forms have been revisited and what methods of display has Kusama used? How has the artist

responded to the gallery space through this installation?

• View the work Walking Piece (c.1966) and identify how the artist has documented this performance. Discuss how the

work uses signs and symbols to suggest a sense of isolation and displacement.

Post- visit• Discuss Kusama’s room environment works: focus on your subjective response as a viewer. How does this differ from

reading about this particular work or seeing images of it in a book? Write about and describe one of your experiences

in a Kusama environment.

• Individually collect reviews and articles published on the Yayoi Kusama: Mirrored Years exhibition. Look in newspapers,

magazines and art journals for these and keep them in your VAPD (Visual Arts Process Diary). Use these examples and

well as your own opinion to critically review the exhibition.

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SECONDARY (Years 11-12)Pre-visit:• Using the artist, art and world timeline in this resource, summarise the key moments in the Kusama’s career whilst

also considering other artists and the world around her. Is there a relationship between the artist’s practice and

significant events in history? Include a brief description as well as dates of significant artworks and exhibitions.

• Discuss the importance of artist’s practice in making/developing a body of work. Use the timeline and biography you

have compiled to support your argument with examples.

• As a class, conduct contextual research into the New York art scene during the 1950s and 60s. Focus on significant

movements, artists and exhibitions that took place or were present at this time. Compile an image library to represent

this period.

In the gallery:• Develop a list of all the forms that Kusama’s art has taken throughout her career. Be specific i.e. Walking Piece is a

performance that has been documented by a series of 24 colour slides.

• How does Kusama’s work address feminist concerns? Locate 2 artworks that could be argued to contain a feminist

perspective. What materials, methods or objects has Kusama used to draw attention to this?

• Write down your observations of the gallery space, including the design features and display methods used throughout

the exhibition. Take note of different lighting techniques, coloured walls and the presence of written information on

the works. How do these features support the meaning of the artworks?

Post- visit:• In the exhibition’s curatorial interpretation, the curator states that Kusama’s earlier works have been juxtaposed

with the artist’s more recent work in order to reflect on life long themes and concerns in her practice. Incorporating

your observations from the gallery visit, analyse how successful you think the exhibition is in terms of this curatorial

approach.

• Art critic Jo Applin has argued that Kusama’s work has a complex relationship with Minimalism. On one hand her

clear-cut visual vocabulary seeks to de-lineate the image with dots, nets and abstracted reflections. On the other

hand the “serial repetition” in Kusama’s practice can be considered obsessive and linked with Surrealism.

Discuss this statement as a group then individually write a response that addresses this argument in relation to 3 of

Kusama’s works you have seen. Identify characteristics that relate to and differ from Minimalism and Surrealism and

use the frames to analyse relevant signs, symbols, motifs and forms.

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gLOSSARY Of TERMS Abstract ExpressionismAbstract expressionism was an American post–World War II art movement. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve worldwide influence and also the one that put New York City at the centre of the art world, formerly occupied by Paris. Its characteristics include an anti-figurative aesthetic, spontaneity or the impression of

spontaneity in painting and sculpture. Artists involved in the movement include Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and

Mark Rothko.

Aggregation

A total or collection of things added together, or the process of adding them together.

Anthropomorphic

Ascribing human form or attributes to a being or thing not human.

Collaborate

In art terms refers to the process of working with another person or group in order to realize a creative project. This

could be other artists as well as professionals from completely different industries, such as scientist or engineers.

Cliché

Anything that has become trite or commonplace through overuse.

Disjunction

A disconnection of joined parts or things.

Domesticity

Refers to a household act, activity, duty or chore.

Feminism

Is a discourse that involves various movements, theories and philosophies, which are concerned with gender difference

and the equality for women, and the campaign for women’s rights and interests.

Happening

An unconventional dramatic or artistically orchestrated performance, often a series of discontinuous events involving

audience participation.

Hallucination

A visual, auditory or tactile experience or perception that has a compelling sense of reality. Usually resulting from a

mental disorder or as a response to a drug.

Hysteria

An emotionally unstable state brought about by a traumatic experience.

Infinity

Infinity refers to a limitless time, space or distance that cannot be calculated.

Minimalism

A non-representational style in sculpture and painting, which arose in the 1950s. Minimalist artists detail and gesture

and used pure, reduced compositions or simple, massive forms.

29

Modernism

A style or movement in 20th century arts, which consciously rejected classical or traditional forms and searched for

new modes of expression. These new forms of expression were a response in changes to technology, travel and ideas

exchanged in the late 19th century across Western Europe.

Monochromatic

One colour or the use of tones in only one colour.

Motif

A recurring subject, theme or idea that can take the shape of a distinctive form in an artwork or design.

Multiplicity

The state of being multiple or varied. A considerable number or variety.

Narcissism

A fascination with oneself, excessive self-love, vanity.

Obliteration

Something that is erased or obscured, leaving no trace.

Oriental

Referring to persons from countries in Eastern Asia, including China and Japan.

Phalli

The plural of phallus. Refers to the male sexual organ as the generative power in nature.

Phenomenon

Something that is perceived or experienced and can be considered truly extraordinary and marvellous.

Pop

Pop art is a movement that emerged in the late 1950s in the United States. It challenged tradition by asserting an

artist’s use of the mass-produced visual commodities and is characterised by themes and techniques drawn from

popular culture. Significant artists include Andy Warhol and Claes Oldenburg.

Post-modern

A late 20th century style and concept in the arts, architecture and criticism. Typical features include a deliberate

mixing of styles and media, conscious use of earlier styles and conventions and the incorporation of images relating to

the consumerism and mass communication of society.

Rupture

A break in, or the breaking apart of something.

Satire

The use of wit, especially irony and sarcasm, to critique or make a comment.

Site specific

Refers to an artwork created for, or in response, to a specific space.

Self- obliterate

Refers to Kusama’s attempt to fragment then erase the self through her art.

Stereotype

An oversimplified or standardised image or idea of a person, place or object.

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Surrealism

Surrealism is a movement that spans visual art, literature and cultural beliefs that began in the early-1920s in Europe.

Characteristics include the exploration of self, the unconscious and feature the element of surprise, unexpected

juxtapositions.

Venice Biennale

The Venice Biennale is a major international and contemporary art exhibition that takes place once every two years in

Venice, Italy. It began in 1895 and is the world’s longest running Biennale.

Visceral

Relating to or affecting the body.

Urethane

Urethane is a family of rubber and plastic materials that are used for making molds. Urethane rubber is widely known

for its durable properties, being abrasion-resistant and extremely malleable.

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fURThER READINg & RESOURCESEXhIbITION RESOURCES‘Yayoi Kusama: Mirrored Years’. (Exhibition catalogue). Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam/ Le Consortium,

Dijon. Les presses du reel, France, 2009.

fURThER READINgApplin, Jo. ‘Resisting Infinity’. Yayoi Kusama. Victoria Miro Gallery, London 2008.

Hartney, Eleanor. ‘Art & Today’. Phaidon Press inc, 2008.

Heingartner, Douglas. ‘Yayoi Kusama’ (exhibition review). Frieze Magazine. October 2008.

Hoptman, L. Kultermann, U. Tatehata, A. Yayoi Kusama, Phaidon Press Ltd, London, 2000.

Koplos, Janet. ‘The Phoenix Returns’. Art In America Magazine. February 1999.

Kusama, Yayoi. ‘Hustlers Grotto: Three Novellas’. (Translated by Ralph F. McCarthy). Wandering Mind Books, Berkeley,

California, 1997.

‘Love Forever: Yayoi Kusama 1958-68’. (Exhibition catalogue) Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1998.

Nakajima, Izumi. ‘’Yayoi Kusama between Abstraction and Pathology’. (edt.) Pollock, Griselda. Psychoanalysis and the

image: transdisciplinary perspectives, Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Oxford, 2006.

Posner, Helaine. ‘The self and the world: negotiating boundaries in the art of Yayoi Kusama, Ana Mendieta and Francesca

Woodman’. (edt.) Chadwick, Whitney. Mirror Images: women, surrealism and self-representation, MIT Press, Cambridge,

Massachusetts, London, 1998.

Skilbeck, Ruth. ‘Infintiy Nets and Polka Dots’. Australian Art collector Magazine. Issue 47 January- March 2009.

Solomon, Andrew. ‘Dot dot dot: Artforum Profile Yayoi Kusama’, Artforum, February 1997.

The Parkett Series with Contemporary Artists. ‘Maurizio Cattelan, Yayoi Kusama, Kara Walker’. No. 59, 2000.

Yoshimoto, Midori. Into Performance: Japanese women artists in New York, Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick,

New Jersey and London, 2005.

‘Yayoi Kusama: Eternity-Modernity’. (Exhibition catalogue). National Museum of Modern Art Tokyo, 2004.

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WEb RESOURCEShttp://www.yayoi-kusama. jp

http://www.roslynoxley9.com.au/artists/49/Yayoi_Kusama/profile/

http://www.coolhunting.com/archives/2007/08/yayoi_kusama.php

http://qag.qld.gov.au/collection/contemporary_asian_art/yayoi_kusama

http://www.boijmans.nl/en/7/kalender/calendaritem/97

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9907E7D61630F936A15756C0A9619C8B63

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0DEEDE163AF932A15754C0A9669C8B63

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DEFDE1631F933A25754C0A96E958260&sec=&spon=&pagewant

ed=2

http://www.moma.org/collection/details.php?artist_id=3315&section_id=bibliography

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ACKNOWLEDgEMENTS The exhibition Yayoi Kusama: Mirrored Years is organised by Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Curated by Jaap Guldemond (Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen), Franck Gautherot and Seungduk Kim (Le Consortium in Dijon, France) and presented in association with City Gallery Wellington.Education kit written by Kate Scardifield, MCA Educator.

Thanks to Judith Blackall, Isabel Finch, Justine McLisky and Emma Nicolson.

All images courtesy the artist and Yayoi Kusama Studio, Tokyo.

© the artist