Saturday, November 30, 2013

Exploring Infinity

Yayoi Kusama is a Japanese artist whose work encompasses a wide range of mediums. Painting, sculpture, performance, installation - Kusama does it all. Most well known for her use of space and exploration of infinity, Kusama has taken her work right down the west side to David Zwirner gallery here in New York.

Her exhibition, I Who Have Arrived In Heaven, contains about 27 paintings, a video installation, and two mirrored "infinity rooms" - the stars of the show. TT and I had the chance to check it out two weeks after its inception. We waited in the cold for three hours but the 45 seconds spent in "The Souls of Million Light Years Away" was well worth it.


It's an ethereal experience, and one I don't think you can easily describe in words. You are standing in a mirrored room on a 3-ft long platform surrounded by water. There are 75 colored LED bulbs that are hanging around you and seem to echo into eternity through the mirrors. As you turn, you see yourself repeat in the reflections and then almost fade into the distance amongst the lights.


It's 45 seconds of a very personal experience and then the doors open and the harsh light of reality floods back in.

Unfortunately, we didn't get the chance to see the second infinity room, "Love is Calling," or see the video installation, "Manhattan Suicide Addict." We spent another 45 minutes exploring Kusama's incredibly colorful and rich paintings, happy to be back in the warmth of the gallery! I'm hoping we can go back and see the rest of the exhibit before it closes.

Some of my favorites!


 


I Who Have Arrived In Heaven will run through December 21st. The show is immensely popular and the gallery has issued warnings of lines up to 4 hours long at popular hours! I'm so happy we got to experience it. :)