Yayoi Kusama’s I Who Arrived in Heaven is a current exhibition on view at the David Zwirner Gallery. This exhibit, which closes on December 21st, is a combination of 27 large-scale paintings, a video installation, and two infinity rooms. An infinity room is the descriptive term assigned to Kusama’s installations, which feature mirrors and water to create the perception of the installation occupying an infinite space. At the age of 83, Kusama has been living by choice in a psychiatric facility located in Tokyo for the past 35 years due to her mental fragility. Her installations and paintings bring the viewer into a parallel realm of tranquil hallucinations where the persistence of self is without boundaries normally mandated by the confining sanity of our minds.
Yayoi Kusama’s I Who Arrived in Heaven is a current exhibition on view at the David Zwirner Gallery. This exhibit, which closes on December 21st, is a combination of 27 large-scale paintings, a video installation, and two infinity rooms. An infinity room is the descriptive term assigned to Kusama’s installations, which feature mirrors and water to create the perception of the installation occupying an infinite space. At the age of 83, Kusama has been living by choice in a psychiatric facility located in Tokyo for the past 35 years due to her mental fragility. Her installations and paintings bring the viewer into a parallel realm of tranquil hallucinations where the persistence of self is without boundaries normally mandated by the confining sanity of our minds.Perhaps the most popular room in the exhibition is Kusama’s Infinity Mirrored Room– The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away. This installation is set in a closet-sized space paneled with mirrors. Viewers enter in groups of 2-3 and stand on a strip of flooring that is surrounded by a shallow reflection pool. The dark space of the installation is illuminated by 75 LED-colored lights suspended at varying lengths from the ceiling which flicker on and off. The result is a 45-second journey, which transcends both space and time. The mirrors and flooring reflect the lights, creating a space uninhibited by the concrete walls. Viewers experience bouts of infinite lights contrasted by sudden darkness, leading to the inevitable contemplation of life and death. One patron, Michaela Katz, described how the installation made her feel “serene, as though the outside world didn’t exist.” Kusama’s exhibit immediately transports viewers to another plane of visual perception.
The exhibit was instantaneously popularized on Instagram, under the hashtag Yayoi Kusama. Yet in order to view the infinity room you must wait in a line that ranges from one to three hours. This may appear to be an unconscionable payment of time, but it is a 3-hour wait for a glimpse at eternity. The three hours seem like a blip in time after experiencing 45 seconds in the infinity room. Although the exhibit will be up for the rest of the month, it is suggested to attend sooner rather than later; it is probable that the wait for the exhibit will only grow longer as the exhibit nears its end. It should also be noted that there is no line for the second infinity room, paintings, or the video installation. If traveling in a group, you can even take turns going to the other exhibits while waiting in the 3-hour line.
The second mirrored infinity room, entitled Love is Calling, is a larger space where approximately 4-10 people are allowed at a time. This room is an uncanny maze of inflatable tentacle-like forms which are covered in the artist’s signature polka dots. The fluorescent tentacles which gradually shift in color protrude from every crevice of the room. The result of these elements is an immersive kaleidoscopic wonderland. Using the same manipulation of space, Kusama is able to create an alternate reality from both our perceived reality and the alternate space she proposed in The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away.
In the same gallery space as Love is Calling is Kusama’s video installation of her recitation of the song Manhattan Suicide Addict. This video display is set in a pitch dark space illuminated only by the projection of Kusama reciting her song as photographs of her previous works rotate in the background. The projection is flanked on both sides by two twelve-foot tall mirrors, creating an infinite projection of the artist and her work. The recitation of the song provides the viewer with a glimpse into the psychedelic world of Kusama, and the use of projection and mirrors creates a self-referential video that plays with perception of depth and flatness.
The 27 acrylic paintings are probably the most underrated part of the exhibition, but is not to be missed. Each canvas is an amalgamation of representational and non-representational forms, both alluding to images of basic life forms one might encounter under a microscope. Each painting consists of a careful balance of colors so vibrantly fluorescent it is almost nauseating (in an oddly indulgent and gratifying way). The intense colors and odd distribution of shape accost the eye, inducing a psychedelic experience. If the viewer were to look from the painting to the stark white walls of the gallery a hallucinatory film of color and shape would surely emerge. Kusama’s exhibition I Who Arrived in Heaven is an experience that should not be missed. Whether you are a lover of contemporary art or are simply curious, the sensory experience of this installation will resonate with everyone.