28 Oct Aftermath of Obliteration of Eternity by Yayoi Kusama on view in Houston
Not top be missed, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston presents Yayoi Kusama, Aftermath of Obliteration of Eternity, 2009, an impressive installation ade of wood, metal, glass mirrors, plastic, acrylic paint, and LED.
As part of her body of work, Yayoi Kusama dazzles audiences worldwide with her immersive “Infinity Mirror Rooms” and an aesthetic that embraces light, polka dots, and pumpkins. The avant-garde artist first rose to prominence in 1960s New York, where she staged provocative Happenings and exhibited hallucinatory paintings of loops and dots that she called “Infinity Nets.” Kusama also influenced Andy Warhol and augured the rise of feminist and Pop art. She has been the subject of major exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, Centre Pompidou, Tate Modern, and the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo. In 1993, Kusama represented Japan at the Venice Biennale. Today, her work regularly sells for seven figures on the secondary market. Throughout her disparate practice, Kusama has continued to explore her own obsessive-compulsive disorder, sexuality, freedom, and perception. In 1977, Kusama voluntarily checked herself into a psychiatric hospital in Tokyo, where she continues to live today.
Yayoi Kusama (Japanese, born 1929) was living in New York when she created her first Infinity Room in 1965. Engaging the viewer directly, through reflections that project into an infinite distance, these installations combine aspects of Minimalism’s clean use of industrial materials with ritual and performance. Kusama returned to Japan in 1970, and subsequent works became increasingly personal. She marked her 80th birthday with Aftermath of Obliteration of Eternity, which references the annual Buddhist Tōrō nagashi (Water Lantern) ceremony honoring one’s ancestors.
When you visit this installation, you are invited to step into the room and stand on the central platform. Over time, a delicate, shimmering mirage unfolds, as lights ignite and are mirrored on every surface. In less than a minute, however, all light disappears—and then the cycle starts anew.
“In the human world, what arouses our body and feeling of vitality is Eternity. I have been living in this Eternity, where enormous love for humanity passes through and the vast brilliance of life is infinitely reflected. . . . We keep flashing, disappearing, and again blossoming out in this Eternity.” —Yayoi Kusama
