Calling all art fans, a Yayoi Kusama Infinity Room is coming to Tampa. I repeat, a Yayoi Kusama Infinity Room is coming to Tampa. If you have not heard of Kusama, you have probably seen her work while scrolling through Instagram. She creates immersive infinity rooms using mirrors, lights, sculptures, and of course polka dots. She plays with the viewers senses to transform the space. Her work has been in famous museums all over the world including the MoMA in New York and Tate Modern in London. That is why a Kusama Infinity Room coming to Tampa is so special.
Yayoi Kusama, Infinity Mirrored Room – The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away, 2013
Yayoi Kusama, All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins, 2016
At the Tampa Museum of Art, from September 28, 2018 through February 14, 2019, we have the honor of seeing Love is Calling, 2013. Love is Calling is an Infinity Room that houses soft tentacle structures that are adorned with polka dots. These sculptures glow with changing colors and are fixed to the floor and ceiling. Due to the mirrored walls, the room looks like it is infinite (hence the name Infinity Room). While becoming enveloped in these tentacles, Yayoi Kusama also reads a love poem in japanese, truly engaging the viewers senses. Tickets start at $15 and can be purchased on the museum’s website.
Yayoi Kusama, Love is Calling, 2013
Yayoi Kusama is an 89-year-old japanese artist. She works with all sorts of styles of art including painting, film, poetry, performance, but predominantly sculpture and installation. She began painting as a child when she had hallucinations of being engulfed in dots. This obsession with dots is seen in all of her work today. She moved to America and pursued the arts. In 1977, Kusama checked herself into a mental hospital in Japan and continues to live there today. She is an amazing, eccentric woman that has gained enormous popularity and respect in a male-dominated profession. I encourage everyone to go see Love is Calling.
Yayoi Kusama, Phalli’s Field, 1965