Today is the day we go to the art show that was the underlying reason for us to hop on a plane and head to Melbourne. Yayoi Kusama has a retrospective show of her works at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV). We think it’s smart to arrive in the morning to avoid the crowds. Approaching the entrance we note there is something special ahead. The trees are all wrapped in polka dot fabric.
Eek! We are in the door before 10am and the place is already crawling. The lobby is buzzing and there are more teasers before you enter the show itself. 1400 mirrored balls are placed in groups on the floor, reflecting the surroundings over and over and over. The line in the exhibit area moves slowly but there are no pauses. Inside it is a constant milling of people. It is busy but we are still able to see every piece hung on the wall and every installation.
Debbie writes…..Yayoi Kusama is in her nineties now. Her art career started in Japan as a young person. She eventually moved to New York and spent about 15 years there before moving back to Japan. It wasn’t until the early 2000s that she became a world wide name. Her pumpkins, with the polka dots, have always been her signature pieces, along with the infinity rooms. One of her quotes said “our earth is only one polka dot among a million stars in the cosmos”, and that really speaks to me.
The dots are of course the highlight. The first infinity room, which was on display at the Venice Biennale, has a mirror box with several pumpkin lanterns in it. A small window allowed visual access. It is the first mind blowing vision. There are several references to pumpkins. Ms Kusama found working with pumpkins therapeutic and used them in her work on and off for her entire career. There are a few more mirror rooms each with its own interest but the first and last one were the most spectacular. The last box has hanging spheres with LED lights that were reflected to infinity. The other highlight was sinuous inflatable yellow tubes with black polka dots spanning the room’s walls, also finished in yellow with black polka dots.
Most of the rest of the day we spent touring other exhibits in the NGV International and the NGV Australia. There is a good show of Impressionism on the second floor of the International gallery. Well worth the visit. There was also a good number of other famous artists display. Salvador Dali’s ‘Marilyn Monroe’s Lips’ might have been the most unusual piece. There are pieces from the Bauhaus, works by Andy Warhol, Manet, Rodin and a whole list of others. The NGV Australia did not have the outstanding pieces the International had but we enjoyed what it had to offer as well. After close to 4 hours of wandering gallery floors we were ready to set a course back to the hotel and rest. It was an anticipated day and I think it lived up to our expectations.
If you get a chance to see Yayoi Kusama’s art, set aside an hour or two and see what she has created. It’s wonderful!