WALKING IN MY MIND – YAYOI KUSAMA
Most artists are famed for their eccentricity, and Yayoi Kusama is no exception. She has created over 50,000 works during her fifty-year career as an artist, all centred around polka dots.
From 23rd June until 6th September, Kasuma’s artwork will be on show as part of a collaborative art project at the Hayward Gallery in London, featuring the works of nine other international artists, including Thomas Hirschhorn, Bo Chrisitian Larsson and Jason Rhoades. Trees on London’s Southbank will be adorned with Kusama’s beloved polka dots for the ‘Walking In My Mind’ installation exhibition.
In celebration, a limited edition collection of polka-dotted urban gnomes- a quirky take on the garden gnome- have been produced by Vitamin Living for the Hayward Gallery, and will be on show throughout the duration of the exhibition. This will take place in the indoor spaces of the gallery and on the outdoor sculpture terraces, which will be turned into a series of gigantic sculptural environments to represent an artist’s individual mindscape.
The inspiration behind the polka dots comes from unique visions which Kusama began seeing at the age of ten. She has described seeing dots, nets and violet flowers, or ‘infinity nets’ which covered everything she saw. These vivid images, which Kusama has termed her “repetitive vision”, saw her referred to a psychiatrist. It was he who encouraged her to translate her hallucinations into artwork. And that was precisely what she did, initially in the form of paintings as a student at the Kyoto Municipal School of Arts and Crafts and then later as installations, turning her into an acclaimed artist in both her home country of Japan and in the US.
Kusama has since turned her attention to many projects, including film, fashion design, writing and poetry, following a long spell living in the US after she struck up correspondence with the American artist Georgia O’ Keeffe. Though she wasn’t financially successful there, her work began to get noticed by the art crowd and collectors after her provocative works appeared in galleries. Her work has been labelled as avant-garde, pop art, Art Brut and surrealist. Her works are all of these and much more. In November 2008 a painting of Kusama’s was sold at the record-breaking price of $5, 100,000; a record for a living female artist, and in 2006 became the first Japanese woman to win the Praemium Imperiale, a Japanese award that recognises the talents of international artists.
Since 1973 Kusama has been living voluntarily at a psychiatric hospital Tokyo. She is still plagued by the visions that inspire her work, as well as the suicidal thoughts stemming from her childhood which have accompanied her through to adult life. Her studio is just a short distance away from the hospital, and Kusama has long claimed that had it not been for her art, she would have killed herself years ago. Yet at the age of 80, outlandishly dressed and with a striking collection of brightly coloured wigs, she shows no sign of giving up just yet, refusing to even consider retirement.
“Walking In My Mind” is an apt name for the exhibition in London. Because for Yayoi Kusama, that is precisely what her art is. And it is a fascinating place to be.
Exhibition lasts until September 6th. Click here to purchase advance tickets.
Words Kay Weston Images Vitamin Living/Hayward Gallery
