Yayoi Kusama 

Kusama is a Japanese artist that is especially known for creating works with polka dots. She was born in 1929. When she was young she lived on a seed farm and plant nursery and as a child she began seeing dots everywhere. Her childhood can be seen reflected in the patterns in her work, much of which features polka dots. Kusama  still exhibits internationally, although now in her nineties she has chosen a sheltered life within an institution, a hospital  which provides her with comfort and safety.

Kuasama’s work is also related to the hallucinations she has and the obsessions within her life. Her installations are an extension of herself and her world. The dots that often cover her own body and extend into the whole installation can be seen to be a reflection of her transcending her own physical limitations and being completely interconnected.

Kusama’s “Dot Obsession” gives the  appearance of endless polka dots but then it becomes clear that this is an illusion which is created through the use of mirrors. This leads the viewer to experience a disorienting space that requires care when moving about, requiring outstretched arms to feel around and not to bump into mirrors. It is like being in a maze visually as the balloon-like forms and the mirrors all look the same because of the polka dots which are everywhere. Kusama’s  covering  herself in polka dots is like a camouflage, almost hiding herself to merge into the background. Perhaps here she transcends physical boundaries and comes to share her world of hallucinations with the viewer.  “Forget yourself. Become one with eternity. Become part of your environment. Enjoy what you like the most” (Kusama 2017)

Kusama had been diagnosed with an obsessional neurosis, but she used her art to “self-obliterate” hallucinatory visions by compulsively reproducing the dots in her work.

One day, she was gazing at a pattern of red flowers on the plastered with the same red floral pattern. I saw the entire room, my entire body and the entire universe covered with red flowers, and in that instant, my soul was obliterated and I was restored, return to infinity, to eternal time and absolute space. This was not an illusion, but reality itself. I was shocked to see to the depths of my soul”.(Kusama)