Fireflies The Yayoi Kusama Infinity Room

This dark spacious room is illuminated by glowing inflatable forms that emerge from both the floor and the ceiling.

Fireflies the yayoi kusama infinity room.

Kusama s fireflies on the water 2002 with its carefully constructed environment of lights mirrors and water is one of the outstanding examples of this kind of installation which creates a space in which individual viewers are invited to transcend their sense of self. But the newer work embodies a more tranquil version of her obsessions. 281 9 367 367 cm. Purchase with funds from the postwar committee and the contemporary painting and sculpture committee and partial gift of betsy wittenborn miller 2003 322.

Like obliteration room and infinity mirror room it showcases her love of unnerving darkness and fascination for infinite space. Discover yayoi kusama firefly infinity mirror room in phoenix arizona. The installation s official name you who are getting obliterated in the dancing swarm of fireflies says it all. While related to the artist s personal mythology and therapeutic working.

Fireflies is not so different from kusama s past work as it builds on her hallucinatory approaches and psychedelic space conceptions. Reuben keehan curator of qagoma s 2017 18 yayoi kusama focused survey in brisbane provides a brief history of kusama s infinity rooms including the national gallery s 2018 acquisition. Whitney museum of american art new york. Like yayoi kusama s earliest room sized installations including infinity mirror room 1965 in which she combined mirrors and her signature polka dotted phallic protrusions in an enclosed chamber fireflies embodies an almost hallucinatory approach to reality.

1929 fireflies on the water 2002. Covered in polka dots these tentacle like forms gradually change colours. Mirrors plexiglass lights and water 111 144 1 2 144 1 2 in. Yayoi kusama s depictions of seemingly endless space have been a central focus of her artistic career.

At the institute of contemporary art love is calling is yayoi kusama s largest and most immersive infinity mirror room.