Yayoi Kusama Infinity Mirror

One of the best-known artists leading the way in infinity mirror installations is none other than Yayoi Kusama. She was born in Matsumoto, Japan, where she studied at the Kyoto School of Arts Crafts. The School of Arts and Crafts specializes in painting in a traditional Japanese style known as nihonga. During the 1960s, Kusama created her Infinity Mirror room series. Since then, she has exploded into the art world, with thousands gathering to experience her Infinity Mirror Rooms.

Yayoi Kusama is an artist that was born and raised in Japan, but after tricking her family into letting her become an artist, she moved to New York. Growing up in Japan, Kusama’s art wasn’t recognized and appreciated, so she mailed a letter to one of her role models: the Georgia O’Keeffe. Georgia O’Keeffe wrote back and told the young artist to move to New York City to grow her art.

So what does she do? She left home and followed her passion for exposing and growing her art. Once she arrived in New York, she had trouble becoming extraordinarily famous and noticed since she was a Japanese woman surrounded by a more male artist. Kusama creatively and cleverly came up with new art types; for example, her soft sculptures were recognized by the other artist.

Then, they found inspiration in her work and started to do similar types of sculptures and paintings. Yayoi Kusama was faced with many obstacles in her life and career. Some of those obstacles included the fact that she was ripped off many times. She created magnificent pieces of art but was not allowed to showcase them in famous galleries.

Though other artists like Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg, and so many more, were able to make similar art and expose it in more famous and intricate galleries’. She soon became depressed after her soft sculpture art piece Accumulation No. 1 was copied by Oldenburg. He created a soft sculpture calendar that made his career skyrocket. This left Kusama depressed for lack of recognition. She wouldn’t leave her studio for days.

After all the battles that she fought, she became successful and known all over the world.

Many people that see Yayoi Kusama art notice one thing. Dots! But why does all of her art include dots? Kusama tells the story of when she was a young girl, she had a hallucination that terrified her. The hallucination was placed in a field of flowers, and they started talking to her. Now, this would freak anyone out. The flower heads were dots, and they went on as far as she could see. Yayoi Kusama felt as if she was disbarring into them, and this is where the dots come from.

Yayoi Kusama likes to relate this hallucination to “self-obliterating.” She enjoys this feeling. She wanted other people to feel this when they look at her art. The meaning behind the Infinity Mirror Rooms is to feel like you are in endless space.

The Iconic Yellow Pumpkin is placed on Naoshima Island. It’s located very close to the water. Most visitors that visit the island will pass this one-of-a-kind piece.

Yayoi Kusama said, “A polka-dot has the form of the sun, which is a symbol of the energy of the whole world and our living life, and also the form of the moon, which is calm. Round, soft, colorful, senseless and unknowing, polka-dots become movement… Polka dots are a way to infinity.”

She soon began to cover different things with her signature look, polka dots, such as floors, household objects, walls, and even nude assistants.

This is a series of sculptures, and each one has a different color theme. Flowers are essential to Kusama, and it symbolizes the flowering and withering of life, grief and celebration, softness and hardness.