oh gosh today I went to the Yayoi Kusama exhibit (mirrored years) at MCA in Sydney
 

...and it made me incredibly happy.

I've never seen a full exhibition of her work, only one off pieces. I have loved her and her work since seeing the 'Infinity Room - Phalli's Field' at sydney biennale in 98 or 99.. and to see this now...

It. was. joyus.

I stood and smiled in the glowing dotty furnature room (pic here; click ). And on the edge of nothingness in a sea of lights and water( like this; http://www.e-flux.com/show_images/12...1image_web.jpg ). And floated in puffy grey squishyness. And felt so incredibly tiny amongst tens of mirrored lenses... and so much more. Many paintings and drawings and more sculpture, and video instals.

Her artistic journey and obsessiveness over work is so incredibly beautiful, and the extent of her catalogue of work is quite amazing..

kusama love.

/artnerd

click;


http://www.mca.com.au/default.asp?pa...ontent_id=4737

fucking cool. gald you got to see that.

That is some cool looking shit there....

Outsider art has always fascinated me.
The time and effort that she puts into her work is insane.
One of the best.

Woah, those pics look really cool

how is yayoi kusama an outsider artist?

She wasn't particularly involved in the movements of her time, perhaps that is what tokolosh means by that. I'm not sure. She is quite popular but her themes are her own and not really intrinsically linked to much in the evolving art community(well, perhaps is not so influenced by it, regardless of whether it is influenced by her..). But yes, her time dedication (whether credited to OCD and other issues or not) is... epic.

She has chosen to live in a mental home for the past 40 years, and has an art building next door where she works daily.

Where abouts in Sydney are you right now?

Yayoi Kusama's approach to art is Brut (=Outsider art) to a certain extent. Her polka dot mania has characteristics of a compulsive disorder
which is not strange if you consider that she is mentally unstable due to traumas she experienced in her youth.

I've met quite a few artist who have similar fixations.
One in particular was a mental patient who would be given all sorts of woolen clothing by visitors
- jerseys, scarfs, socks, etc. He would then systematically strip them all into different coloured balls and then roll them back
into gigantic egg-shaped sculptures. Some of these multicoloured eggs took years to make and stood 2-3 meters high.
Amazing character. He died last year and the mental home put together an exhibition in honour of his work.

i know she has mental problems but on the other hand she's been in the venice bienalle, etc

city, south of the harbour.