Yayoi Kusama was an artist I was given from 19/02/21 group crit. Kusama is “influential to the development of assemblage, environmental art and performative practices” (Auction Central News, 2016). She changes environments into immersive experiences – similar to how I worked in Are You Watching?
Reflection 26/05/21: I have taken Yayoi Kusama’s infinity room feel towards in my digital drawings for the exhibition proposal series. I used the use of the repetition from the Phalli’s Field into the way I’d hope to project To Bite B&W Repeat in the studio. The feeling of continual mouths.
I visited Kusama’s work in Amsterdam in 2016, I saw Infinity Mirror Room – Phalli’s Field and it was incredible. This work has sewed and stuffed fabric tubes surrounding the floor which is then boxed in by mirrors, see below, it created this ongoing ‘infinity’ appearance to the space, made it look huge!! It was very overwhelming but also had a cold feel to it, the continual white walls felt very surgical which was peculiar. This piece also had a walk way where you would go to get into the middle of the work, made it feel consuming and part of the work. There’s a resemblance to Anthony Gormley’s Field. These objects have a characteristic feel to them.
Yayoi Kusama, Infinity Mirror Room – Phalli’s Field, 1965.
NOTE: there is this relation to display of bodies I created within my CUBED exhibition in October, I used a projector in a very similar way, to help created an illusion of more clay bodies than there is – working with the shadows. As well as the placement of the figures surrounding the floor around you – I tried a variety of way soft how to display the figures, and looking back, one way I went with was using this similar lay out of the walk way to Kasuma was really successful in relation to involving the viewers.
The numerous figures surrounding the space, the use of bright red dots on the fabric made the work feel as though there was loads more than there actually was. You get lost looking at where one ends and the other begins. It’s a peculiar technique, of which is reflected in Are You Watching? for the interim exhibition, see still below. The projection of these circular breasts were said to have an illusionary visual of them, from afar they didn’t look projected but real. There’s this imagery of a repeating pattern in relation to the shape of breasts, circular and dotted around the space that was the kitchen.
Like how Kusama also used a domestic space where she invited people in to cover the space in coloured dots in Obliteration Room in 2002. With this flows the use of a domestic space, like we as a group did in Congruous. There’s something oddly homey abut Kusama’s work here – even though it’s covered in dots! It also feels beautiful and inviting, a completely different feel to Phalli’s Field.
Yayoi Kusama, Obliteration Room, 2002.
In Obliteration Room above, “upon entering, visitors will be invited to cover every surface of the furnished gallery with multicoloured polka dot stickers, gradually engulfing the entire space” (Auction Central News, 2016). She chooses the colour and the sizes of the dots, as well as the space and furniture, but she gives the control to the audience to allow them to ‘make their mark’ and involve themselves into the piece of work. As these circle stickers resemble dots, she uses this as her motif to continue to work with, she is known for it and has become a recognised artist for them. The dots are a reflection of Kusama’s vision as she suffered from hallucinations and “often in the form of nets or spots multiplying to dominate her field of vision” (Tate, 2015).
NOTE: I liked this idea of inviting the audience to join in, this wouldn’t work well due to COVID, however I had a idea in L5 where I wanted to display the female figures in a room and allow people to enter and pick them up, touch them and see if it would evoke feeling of discomfort as though ‘you shouldn’t be doing it’, not just being they are pieces of art, but because they are also the female form – a body that no one else has the right to touch with out the female’s say so.
“The interactive character of the room is typical of the way in which her practice engages the viewer directly, breaking down boundaries between subject and object.” (Fritsch 2015). – the audience become the artwork and there also becomes this confusion between object and viewer!!
Reflection 18/04/21: Currently I am exploring this technique of the audience also being the artwork by witnessing and gaining a reaction from being in the space/work.
Obliteration Room feels bright, welcoming and full of emotion. The emotion element to this installation was also a comment made by a peer in my group crit of Are You Watching?, it felt seductive, happy, exciting, inviting, feminine and welcoming to other women – among this element of a cinematic/stage like lay out it created interesting feedback where instead where I was trying to explore women being sexual objects in the kitchen, it was highlighted that they appeared to be celebrating being women. This element of emotion through colour and placement can change the whole aspect to your work, creating multiple meanings etc.
Reflection 02/03/21: I have been interested in repeating patterns, seems to be occurring in my work where I explore breasts and the female form, without this being acknowledged till now.
Reflection 18/04/21: Even in Sweet Tooth B&W works with double projections, has double impact. The feeling of visualising two breasts has double the effect of the gaze both at the work/from the eye like breasts.
These are just two examples of the Infinity Rooms by Kusama, she has 6 in total. Infinity Mirrored Room – The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away is another one she created works with light and space, it’s a beautiful surrounding pace like atmosphere, in 2013. See below. “The installation is a mirror-lined chamber populated with a dazzling and seemingly vast array of LED lights creating a disorienting sense of limitless space” (Auction Central News, 2016). It resembles kaleidoscope qualities that are pulled together to create an inhuman experience, outer space ideals with ‘Light Years Away’. As though you’re stuck in time or moving though space, it looks peaceful.
Yayoi Kusama, Infinity Mirror Room – A Million Light Years Away, 2013.
“Kusama has underlined the importance of the role the viewer plays in her rooms and how he or she continually experiences the work in a new way: ‘One is more aware than before that he himself [the viewer] is establishing relationships as he apprehends the object from various positions and under varying conditions of light and spatial context … For it is the viewer who changes the shape constantly by his change in position relative to the work’ (quoted in Applin 2012, p.37).” (Fritsch, 2015).
- I want to expand on this immersive installation path: colour, lights, projection & sculptures, to create an emotion/experience that can also be felt through an image.
Reflection 18/04/21: I am definitely creating emotion within my work, especially taking a black and white take with a pornographic twist on the Sweet Tooth B&W, it evokes a straight to the point, clear objectification. Which appears both quite grotesque and uncomfortable.
