Mirrored Years

I went to the MCA a couple of days ago to try and galvanise this blog. I was also drawn (shamefully enough) to one of the exhibitions after seeing an ad in Vogue on whom I thought was a crazy looking Japanese lady, and later turned out to be the influential Yayoi Kusama (who said empirical knowledge didn't affect an aesthetic judgment? nuts to you, Kant). Just looking her up on Wikipedia, I found an interesting quote. But first, here's some background:

From Wiki

Born in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, Kusama has experienced hallucinations and severe obsessive thoughts since childhood, often of a suicidal nature. She claims that as a small child she suffered severe physical abuse by her mother.

Early in Kusama's career, she began covering surfaces (walls, floors, canvases, and later, household objects and naked assistants) with the polka dots that would become a trademark of her work. The vast fields of polka dots, or "infinity nets," as she called them, were taken directly from her hallucinations.

and later

Today she lives, by choice, in a mental hospital in Tokyo, where she has continued to produce work since the mid-1970s. Her studio is a short distance from the hospital.

In essence, Kusama leads her hyperaware lifestyle in a mannter best expressed by this mantra:
"If it were not for art, I would have killed myself a long time ago."

The art born from this unbelievable intense philosophy is astonishing. Admittedly, while her paintings are interesting, and the MCA's placement of her main infinity nets echo a bit of Rothko (in the sense that the physical space combined with the art seems to extend beyond the gallery itself, for Kusama, they suggests some sort of hypnotical, organic infinity with traces of eyes, muscle cells, faces, flowers) Kusama, in my opinion, best expresses her concept of the transcendental infinite - the sublime - through her installations.

Fireflies in the Water 2000 lightbulbs, water, mirror room 300 x 450 x450

Simple in structure but resulting in complex visual deceit, Kusama addresses the beautiful and sublime simultaneously in a manner that constantly reminds us of our own crappy mortality. Stepping inside Fireflies in the Water immediately seemed to transport us into an infinite, serene galaxy where only you and another three strangers existed. Kusama later becomes tongue in cheek below.

Infinity Mirror Room - Phalli's Field, 1965

The little soft cutesy tubes lose their appeal once you discover they have a strange phallic resemblance, and you're essentially trapped with an infinite number of poxy penis tentacles.
While Kusama's infinity rooms can make you feel alienated from whilst belonging to her strange atmosphere, her final installation in the MCA exhibition is kinder to the receptor.





The installation comprised of a typical suburban dining/living room, whose contents were decidedly generic and familiar. Ingeniously, the room was lighted by UV lamps and Kusama installed thousands of polka dots (her signature pattern) over every surface of the room, except of course, the vistors, who responded with many astonished gasps. The effect was another welcoming infinity net, linking everything at once together and, although the human was not linked, he, too felt a part of the comfortable setting. Her idea of a greater transcendental force existing absolutely everywhere I think points to the very little considered idea of sublimity in modernity.

Perhaps we don't like contemplating the forever (the mathematical sublime?), because being in the installation, I began to think about it and didn't exactly enjoy feeling so fragile and temporaneous. I did, however, really appreciate feeling a sense of belonging to that room, and didn't want to leave.