When my friend, Gina, said she was visiting London and asked if I wanted to join her to see Yayoi Kusama’s latest exhibition poetically titled The Moving Moment When I Went to the Universe, I didn’t need to think twice. I love her creations, best known for her polka dots, pumpkins, vibrant colours and infinity room installations. Kusama’s work is unpretentious and fun, a rare quality for an artist also described as avant-garde.
As we entered the Victoria Miro gallery in East London we were directed up a flight of stairs to see the infinity room that goes by the name My Heart is Dancing into the Universe (2018). Only a maximum of 4 people can enter the infinity room at a time so we waited a few minutes until it was our turn to venture inside.
Once we passed through the curtain we found ourselves standing inside a dark room filled with glowing paper lanterns, each of which were covered in spots that changed colour over time. Added to the walls and ceiling of the installation was a reflective mirror-like surface, giving the lanterns the appearance of continuing on forever. The illusion of infinite space was amazing given that we were actually walking through a very small room.
Next we entered the exhibition on the bottom floor dedicated to her pumpkin sculptures. These brought a smile to my face because when I was in Japan a few years ago I had my heart set on seeing the iconic one in Naoshima, also known as Art Island. I had gone to the trouble of spending a night in Okayama so I could reach Naoshima the following morning, however, luck was not on my side as I ended up missing the ferry which squashed my plans of visiting the island and seeing her work. Given that Gina had kindly asked if I wanted her spare ticket to an exhibition that had sold out before it even started, luck was now on my side.
Other works in the exhibition include huge sculptural flowers in the gallery’s scenic garden area overlooking the canal. This natural backdrop was the perfect setting from which to enjoy the super fun and outlandish flowers painted in bright colours and covered in her trademark polka dots.
On the top floor are a selection of paintings that I had not seen before – by this, I mean not whilst stumbling across them via the net or social media. It’s hard not to have seen Kusmara’s polka-dotted creations on social media one way or another. There’s something hugely ‘instagrammable’ about them which in part has contributed to her legion of young fans, but these paintings are different though – not as perfect – they are totally free and somehow feel more personal.
The whole exhibition is extraordinary, and a celebration to the artist who, born in 1929, will be turning ninety next year.
The Victoria Miro Gallery has really used the building’s own features to showcase her work in the best way possible. I left feeling deeply overjoyed by her work, as though I had ventured into a world that was uniquely Kusama’s and one she was happy to share.
After all, well, moon is a polka dot, sun is a polka dot, and then, the earth where we live is also a polka dot.
The exhibition coincides with UK release of a film about the artist’s life, entitled Kusama-Infinity which charts Kusama’s career from her time in New York dating from the late 1950s to the early 1970s, and her return to Japan in 1973 wherein 1977, she admitted herself to a psychiatric hospital in Tokyo and still remains living there today.
For more information about this exhibition visit www.victoria-miro.com.
