Fireflies The Yayoi Kusama Infinity Room

281 9 367 367 cm.

Fireflies the yayoi kusama infinity room.

1929 fireflies on the water 2002. Mirrors plexiglass lights and water 111 144 1 2 144 1 2 in. Covered in polka dots these tentacle like forms gradually change colours. The installation s official name you who are getting obliterated in the dancing swarm of fireflies says it all.

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. While related to the artist s personal mythology and therapeutic working. 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. An installation at phoenix art museum since 2005 yayoi kusama s you who are getting obliterated in the dancing swarm of fireflies 2005 is one of the artis.

Yayoi kusama s depictions of seemingly endless space have been a central focus of her artistic career. Purchase with funds from the postwar committee and the contemporary painting and sculpture committee and partial gift of betsy wittenborn miller 2003 322. Ethereal fireflies at phoenix art museum artist yayoi kusama s recent exhibition at the david zwirner gallery in new york city saw big crowds and long lines but the phoenix art musuem owns a similar larger permanent installation which is always on display. This dark spacious room is illuminated by glowing inflatable forms that emerge from both the floor and the ceiling.

Like obliteration room and infinity mirror room it showcases her love of unnerving darkness and fascination for infinite space. At the institute of contemporary art love is calling is yayoi kusama s largest and most immersive infinity mirror room. Fireflies is not so different from kusama s past work as it builds on her hallucinatory approaches and psychedelic space conceptions. 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.