Author(s): Akira Tatehata

Art

"Yayoi Kusama: I Who Have Arrived in Heaven" features new work from the artist's critically acclaimed 2013 inaugural exhibition at David Zwirner, which spanned the gallery's three locations in New York. Kusama's extraordinary and highly influential career spans paintings, performances, room-size presentations, outdoor sculptural installations, literary works, films, fashion, design and interventions within existing architectural structures. Opening this book is a series of exquisitely produced color plates of brightly colored, large-format square paintings. Part of a recent body of work, they allude to universal spheres or basic life forms and highlight Kusama's unique amalgamation of representational and nonrepresentational subject matter. Also featured is the video installation, "Song of a Manhattan Suicide Addict," in which the artist herself is seen performing a song she composed while an animated slideshow of selected artworks moves behind her and the two mirrored infinity rooms. "Infinity Mirrored Room--The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away" encompassed a cube-shaped, mirror-paneled room that featured a shallow reflecting pool as its floor; hundreds of multicolored LED lights were suspended at varying heights from the ceiling, flickering on and off in a strobelike effect. Another mirrored infinity room, "Love Is Calling," stands as one of Kusama's most immersive, kaleidoscopic environments to date. It was composed of a darkened, mirrored room illuminated by inflatable, tentacle-like forms--covered in the artist's characteristic polka dots--that extended from the floor and ceiling, gradually changing colors.