"I think I will be able to, in the end, rise above the clouds and climb the stairs to Heaven, and I will look down on my beautiful life."
-Yayoi Kusama
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Yayoi Kusama is a Japanese contemporary artist who mainly works in sculpture and installations, but is also an active painter, designer and more. Her work is mostly conceptual with atributes of feminism minimalism, pop art, abstract surrealism, and infused with phycological and autobiographical context.
Born in Nagano, Japan in 1929, Kusama underwent a number of challenges growing up including dealing with an abusive mother and unfaithful father, and mental illness from a young age. To cope with the hallucinations induced by her mental illness, Kusama would paint what she saw, later saying that art became her way to express her mental disease. This is most notably seen in her Infinity Net paintings based on repetitive patterns and her installations and paintings.
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"Kusama began painting as a child, at about the time she began experiencing hallucinations that often involved fields of dots. Those hallucinations and the theme of dots would continue to inform her art throughout her career." (Britannica, 1) When Kusama moved to New York to further her career, she destroyed many of her early paintings. Her early work in New York features her 'infinity nets' inspired by hallucinations she experienced in her childhood. Almost all of Kusama's art has autobiographical undertones. She has said that she uses her art as a way to confront personal phobias, such as her fear of sex, stemming from witnessing her father womanizing.
Post Modern Principles of art
What does your artist use most?
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Yayoi Kusama uses Recontextualization often. She is someone who sees the world differently, and that translates into her art. She is always adding avant-garde aspects to a normal object.
Like here, in her installation piece: "All The Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins" (2016)
Kusama adds her own twist to a simple object like a pumpkin that is unusual. Like the size, mass amount of them, colours and polka dots, and the mirrors, adding her theme of infinity.
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Where do you see this?
I see this in a lot of her sculptures and installations. Instead of just sculpting a pumpkin or a couch, Kusama always adds an aspect to it that is out of the ordinary. Like in this series of sculptures called "Accumulation" (1962)
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Kusama took normal objects like shoes, a chair, and a shelf. And completely altered the feelings they inflict on the viewer. These objects normally wouldn't revoke much of a reaction. But with Kusama's touch, they make the viewer feel weird and uncomfortable.
Why do you think they are using this technique to speak to their viewers?
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Using Recontextualisation, Kusama can change the feeliong's objects invoke in her viewers. The feelings being similar to how she feels herself, as almost all of her work is autobiographical. Adding phallic structures to everyday objects makes the viewer feel uneasy and uncomfortable- similar to the Kusama's feelings regarding sex. Using this principal helps her translate her mesage across to the viewer and helps them understand her intent better.
Phallic Girl: Description & Analysis
Mannequin with applied straw-stuffed cloth sacks, wig, painted Silver on an iron base.
This female manequin is almost obliterated in phallic structures. As a result, she becomes representitive for Kusama consumed by her phallocentric phobia and neurosis. Through her use of phallic structures, Kusama also can be making a feminist counter part to the eroticism of the female mannequin that is done by male artists.
Artwork Description and Analysis
Acrylic paint on canvas.
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This painting features a large black formation in the middle of the canvas surrounded by an abundance of a colourful, bright configuration of elements. The Black form is representative of a heavy, consuming weight overtaking it's seemingly happy surroundings.
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I was inspired by Yayoi Kusama's process of acquiring inspiration. Kusama was inspired by a traumatic and emotional event in her early childhood. To find inspiration for my own project, I was not exactly inspired by a traumatic childhood event, but I did I turn to my own psyche and emotions.