YAYOI KUSAMA: Life is the Heart of the Rainbow, National Gallery Singapore

By Eva Wong Nava

(1390 words, 14-minute read)

Pumpkins, phalli, polka dots, stainless steel balls. These are the iconographies of YAYOI KUSAMA (b. 1929), the influential Japanese artist, who is equally famous for her commission by Louis Vuitton to imprint her [in]famous dots on their emblematic handbags and clothing line.

Her earlier works, made in her studio at home in Matsumoto, were created after her studies in nihonga (Japanese painting). However, Kusama found nihonga constraining and she veered towards the freedom of expression found in avant-garde art. Kusama’s expansive oeuvre reflects the influences of Surrealism and Dada. However, she prefers to call her art ‘Kusama Art’, stubbornly refusing to be categorised. She has an extensive practice, ranging from abstract expressionism to pop art expressed through her sculptures, collages and paintings. At 88, she is still creating in her studio, which she set up near the psychiatric hospital which has been her home since 1977.

The viewer is privy to Kusama’s psychic processes. These are symbols of the unconscious, first discovered by Freud in his psychoanalysis of neuroses. Signs of neuroses pepper all of Kusama’s pieces, reflecting her unconscious anxiety with the corporeal, which begins with her own obsession with ‘self-obliteration’. A silver mannequin stands covered in protrusions; she is being eaten away by the phallic organisms growing out of her skin. Here, Kusama’s message is powerful: the obliteration of the female by patriarchy.

‘Style originates in character; it is an expression of individuality and subjectivity’ – this is evident in all of Kusama’s work. Her pieces reflect her obsession with (her)self and her place in the universe: for someone so preoccupied with the obliteration of self expressed in her ‘Infinity Nets’ series, where canvases are smothered edge to edge with circles of paint, Kusama is very aware of integrating herself into the world. She is purposeful in how she does this: with a unique style that has become her emblem and by insisting on others crediting her work with ‘[©YAYOI KUSAMA]’ (sic); the capped font signifying self importance.

Statue of Venus Obliterated by Infinity Nets No. 2 (1998), is a figurative application of Kusama’s preoccupation with self obliteration. A fibreglass statue of Venus de Milo, Goddess of Love, covered in yellow polka dots stands in front of a monochrome canvas also filled with yellow dots. Upon prolonged viewing, the statue starts to blend into the canvas background obliterating her presence as she becomes buried in a sea of repetitive dots. The monotonous repetitivity of dotting, circling, lining, twirling – actions underpinning boredom – encapsulate her anxieties on female oppression. Every piece captures Kusama’s rebellion against authority, patriarchy and social conformity (Fig. 7).

I hear a viewer exclaiming as she passes a large four-panelled canvas covered with dots in tones of blue, green and pink. Pink dots are formed unevenly throughout, but the eye starts to see blue striations amongst patches of greens. The effect is nothing short of hypnotic, as one stares into the canvas for a prolonged period. Curiously, the exclamation is one of fear, as I hear mumbles of “how scary” and spy the viewer shaking her head. Could Kusama Art not be for the trypophobic? The dots on this piece, Transmigration, start to remind me of the patterns on scabbing skin as the wound perforates when wet (Fig. 8).

One salient characteristic that I discovered in Yayoi Kusama is her relentless entrepreneurial savvy. The Gallery’s City Hall Chamber has been converted into a gallery for this exhibition. Here, the visitor is permitted to walk into a cavernous space transformed into a garden of 1,500 stainless steel balls. The installation entitled Narcissus Garden is a homage to wordplay and the self (Fig. 9). The stainless steel balls reflect the viewers who participate in their own self obliteration by being immersed in a reflective pool of multiple selves. Kusama created this installation in 1966, for the 33rd Venice Biennale. Her purpose was to connect art with daily life and to make it accessible to the public and the less wealthy. She was present at the Biennale, dressed in a kimono selling each steel ball for US$2.00. She promoted the sale with a placard – “YOUR NARCISSUS FOR SALE” (sic) accompanied by flyers of art critic Herbert Read’s praise of her work. This performance caused a scandal in the art world, with Kusama being accused of illegally hawking her work, although the act of selling was part of the art itself – the art of performance (Fig. 10).

YAYOI KUSAMA: Life is the heart of the rainbow is on show at the National Gallery Singapore from 9 June to 3 September 2017.

Guest Contributor Eva Wong Nava is a published writer, former food blogger and emerging art historian who combines her love for art with writing personal reviews and anecdotes. She has led art tours at various institutions and has taught writing using works of art as talking points and inspiration. Her flash fiction is published in various places, including Jellyfish Review and Flash Fiction Magazine. Her art writings have appeared in several independent arts magazines and platforms. She is dedicated to making writing about art an accessible activity for future generations.

Eva has a degree in English Literature and Language from the University of Hull, a Post-Graduate Certificate in Education from the Institute of Education, London, and an Art Writing qualification from Sotheby’s Institute of Art. She is currently completing her dissertation for a Masters in Art History with the Open University, United Kingdom, on Byzantine art and its relationship with the Italian Renaissance. She plans to write about the Renaissance later.