Gallery by the Harbour, and Ocean Terminal Forecourt,
Oct 9-31, 10am-9pm
Yayoi Kusama's fixation with dots hasn't diminished in 70 years. The 77-year-old Japanese artist continues to create her trademark dot-infused works in Dots Obsession - Soul of Pumpkin, comprising a series of prints with mainly pumpkins and one giant pumpkin installation.
'I feel a sense of infinity and freedom in Kusama's works,' says Isao Takakura, a representative of Yayoi Kusama Studio and friend of Kusama for more than 20 years. 'She paints dots and her net motif everywhere. They are never-ending, extending from one piece [of work] onto another. I don't think there is any special meaning to the pumpkins or the dots [but] I just love them.'
Kusama started making a name for herself in 1957 when she moved to the US, where she displayed nude performance art and participated in anti-war demonstrations. She returned to Japan in 1973 and continued to garner accolades on both sides of the world. She won New York's Best Gallery Show from the International Association of Art Critics in 1996, and received the Order des Arts et des Lettres from France in 2003.
Kusama's obsession with pumpkins developed in her childhood during the second world war. As food was scarce, she ate pumpkin for almost every meal. Since then, the pumpkins in Kusama's works have taken on a life of their own. The flat psychedelic-like images with a net motif background are given personalities, with titles such as Pumpkin God, Dancing Pumpkin and Thinking Pumpkin.