My Thoughts On The Art Installation By Yayoi Kusama
‘My desire was to predict and measure the infinity of the unbound universe, from my own position in it.’ ~ Yayoi Kusama
I knew I had to go the art installation “you, me and the Balloons” when it came to Manchester in the UK. I’m glad I took the opportunity and snatched up a ticket. Considering I knew little about the life of Yayoi Kusama I went in ‘blind’ not knowing what to expect or how I would come to feel some kind of way about Yayoi Kusama and her art.
In the first room Called ‘The hope of the polka dots buried in infinity will eternally cover the universe.’ There was so much to take in from one room. I know it’s bizarre to think that way but it’s true. Theses inflatable trunks (what I called them) covered in polka dots were like an optical illusion. I wasn’t prepared for my thoughts at the end of the installation though. They kind of reminded me of the sand snakes from the movie ‘Beetle-juice’ but of the polka dot variety.
I moved on to the stairway leading to ‘the dots obsession.’ Inflatable balloons of red and white Hung in the air. Looking down on an inflatable image of ‘Yayoi-Chan,’ you could say is the embodiment of the young artist herself. Beside her is her companion Toko-Ton. The statue itself is just brilliant to look and admire. It follows on to the clouds a combination of yellow clouds with black polka dots or black clouds with yellow dots and red clouds with white polka dots.
Next, I peep into a mirror room where a large red and white polka dot balloon is suspended with several mirrors creating the infinity of dots. It’s so cool and it goes on forever. I want to linger longer but the queue is getting large, and I move on. All the time I am absorbing these magnificent clouds and balloons there is a song in the background sung by Yayoi herself. A video of her singing the song was installed at the back of the room. The song is titled, “Song of a Manhattan suicide addict.” The lyrics are as follows:
Swallow antidepressants and it will be gone,
Tear down the gate of hallucinations
Amidst the agony or flowers, the present never ends
At the stairs to heaven, my heart expires
In their tenderness
Calling from the sky, doubtless,
Transparent in its shade of blue,
Embraced with the shadow of illusion
Cumulonimbi arise
Sounds of tears, shed upon eating
The color of cotton rose
I become a stone
Not in time eternal
But in the present that transpires.
Once I realized what the song was about, I began to feel myself slowly lean into her art and the infinity dots. I stand before the huge installation of Yayoi-Chan. This larger version does give off ‘Alice in wonderland’ vibes. I am slowly beginning to see, feel and hear Yayoi Kusama’s world and how she experiences life.
I move onto the massive pink and black polka dot installation called ‘a Bouquet of love I saw in the universe’. The floor is illuminated pink with black polka dots. Huge inflatable arms or snake like structures again reminding me of sand snakes. I walk around slowly, the song now on repeat the entire time beginning to shift my perspective like a slow hypnotic drug.
If you were to ever eat an edible here, you would have a massive reaction to your surroundings for sure! Big polka dots, medium and small polka dots, everywhere you turn polka dots going on forever and ever. The vision that Yayoi Kusama wanted to bring to the world. I didn’t want to leave and kept walking round slowly with song now slowing my movements. You start to understand the themes and the ‘wonderland’ references.
I later found posters with information about Yayoi Kusama’s life, and it wasn’t what I expected. Yayoi Grew up in an unhappy home in Japan during the wartime. Art was her way of coping with the world around her. As a result of the war, Yayoi became mentally ill. At 16 years old, the USA dropped two atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki killing hundreds of thousands of people. Those experiences resulted in her mental health deteriorating badly. She began having visual and auditory hallucinations where flowers and dogs spoke to her.
Yayoi Kusama lives in a mental health facility and has been living there since the 1970s. I find myself becoming intoxicated with the art, the song and her life’s work. I resonated with it so much as I myself have struggled with mental health since my late 20s with one psychotic episode and a month in mental health facility. It’s funny as I was walking around, I heard a couple behind me talk about how depressing it was. The girlfriend replied stating that “well she did have mental health problems”.
For me I didn’t find it depressing I found my self instead understanding a fraction of her world and yet through her struggles she has managed to have a career as a world renown artist. Her artworks have been all over the world. How Yayoi sees the world and her message is one of beauty despite her daily struggles. I find it fascinating that artists with mental health issues see the world so differently and they also see the bigger picture of our world and its messages.
For me the art installation and becoming one with it is ultimately perhaps what Yayoi Desires, that we are ever present and yet remembering that life goes on for infinity. Yayoi chose to create her world with an infinite number of polka dots, flowers, dogs and pumpkins. She also believes in a collective healing from the power of art. It is a force that can unite all people.
Yayoi Kusama says of her works:
‘This was my living. Breathing manifesto of love. Thousands of illuminated colours blinking at the speed of light — isn’t this the very illusion of life in our transient world?