Yayoi Kusama
Japan, 1929.
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.
She left her native country at the age of 27 for New York City, on
the advice of Georgia O'Keefe. During her time in the United States, she
quickly established her reputation as a leader in the avant-garde movement.
She organized outlandish happenings in conspicuous spots like Central
Park and the Brookyln Bridge, was enormously productive, and counted
Joseph Cornell among her friends and supporters, but did not profit
financially from her work. She returned to Japan in ill health in 1973.
Her work shares some attributes of feminism, minimalism, surrealism, Art Brut, pop, and abstract expressionism,
but she describes herself as an obsessive artist. Her artwork is
infused with autobiographical, psychological, and sexual content, and
includes paintings, soft sculptures, performance art and installations.
Some interview questions:
You have referred to your polka dots as a kind of virus,
spreading over everything in their midst. With the idea of "viral" in
mind, do you see any relationship between your place as an artist in
history and the dots you continue to depict?
Since my childhood, I have always made works
with polka dots. Earth, moon, sun and human beings are all represent
dots; a single particle among billions. This is one of my important
philosophies, which is accepted by many people.
You have been making work in a mental institution since 1975.
How do you find inspiration in such a confined space? Would you ever
think of leaving the institution?
It doesn’t matter at all for me that I work in
hospital or anywhere with limited space. Every day, I’m creating new
works with all my might.
