YAYOI KUSAMA: MIRRORED YEARS

Education Kit

CONTENTS
03 INTRODUCTiON Ways to use this kit Curriculum Connections 05 06 07 08 09 ARTiST BiOGRaPHY ARTiST, WORLD aND ART TiMELiNE ARTiST STaTEMENT bY YaYOi KUSaMa EXHibiTiON OVERViEw KEY EXHIBITION THEMES: Repetition and Accumulation: A Visual Language Abstraction and Representation Infinity Self- Obliteration

11 CASE STUDY 1: ARTIST AS ARTWORK: YAYOI KUSAMA Visions Identity Artists Practice: Exhibition and Performance Critical Response Case Study Focus Questions 16 20 25 27 30 32 ARTWORK ANALYSIS The Moment of Regeneration (2004) Innity Net paintings Women Waiting for Spring (TZW) (2005) from Love Forever (2004-07) Walking Piece (1966) CASE STUDY 2: INFINITE SPACE: YAYOI KUSAMA AND INSTALLATION Background Creating the Illusion of Space: Innity Mirror Room- Phallis Field (Floor Show) (1965) Remaking a Vision: Im Here, but Nothing (2000) Insight to an Earlier Practice: Untitled (Mother) c.1939 Case Study Focus Questions Learning Ideas and Focus Questions GLOSSaRY Further Reading and Resources ACkNOwLEDGEMENTS

Previous page: Yayoi Kusama FLOWERING NEW YORK [OPRT] (detail) 2005 from the series Love Forever 2004-07 silkscreen on canvas Courtesy the artist, Victoria Miro Gallery, London and Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo the artist

INTRODUCTION
This resource has been produced by MCA Learning to support the exhibition Yayoi Kusama: Mirrored Years. It is aimed at teachers and students from Primary to Secondary levels and can be adapted for Tertiary studies. It is designed for students of Visual Arts, Photographic and Digital Media. It is also relevant for English especially for the study of Visual Literacy.

THis resource oFFers:

Insight into the artistic practice of Yayoi Kusama. Analysis on key themes throughout the artists career. Examines four seminal works included in the exhibition. Two focus case studies A series of focus questions and activities. Please note: This exhibition contains images of nudity. Certain exhibition content may not be suitable for younger audiences, especially Primary students. Teachers can contact MCA Learning for further information.

WAYS TO USE THIS KIT:

The material in this resource is designed to complement a visit to the exhibition and to be used in conjunction with other exhibition resources. There is a catalogue as well as a reading room located in the exhibition space. Use the images, activities and ideas to assist with pre-visit preparation, as a guide during the gallery visit and to develop postvisit activities. Teachers can adapt the artwork analysis and case studies to suit their students needs or integrate areas of this resource into existing classroom units of study. Key terms in bold are defined and included in the glossary at the end of this kit. A guide to additional publications and resources has been provided to assist in further study.

CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
Primary, Secondary (Secondary can Be adapted For Tertiary).
For Secondary audiences the study of artworks in a gallery environment during their class visits to the MCA provides a valuable learning opportunity. Students can explore the Conceptual Framework and study the Frames through engaging with the works on display as well as engaging with the development of an artists Body of Work. Teachers are encouraged to adapt syllabus links from the list below to suit the system of their schools state. Please use this list as a starter for planning, or talk to MCA Learning staff for further ideas.

Visual Arts/ Creative Arts

The role of the Curator The role of the Contemporary Museum Working in a series, developing a body of work Conceptual framework- Artist, Artwork, Audience, World Exposure to a range of artistic practice Diversity of media and techniques Artists Practice

EnGlisH
Analysing Visual Texts Oral and research skills Response to visual stimuli Creative writing and response Critical essays and reviews

PHotoGrapHic and DiGital Media

Allusions to popular culture including film The photographic portrait and self-portrait Photography and film as documentation- truth and artifice The moving image- video and installation Multimedia presentations

Society and Environment

Visual Arts as reflection of contemporary culture Visual arts as reflection of cultural and personal identity

ESL/ NESB/ CALD

Developing a visual arts vocabulary list Written and oral responses Cultural identity and issues in the visual arts

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Yayoi Kusama and The Earth in Late Summer 2004 Styrol, wood, cloth, paint, set of 50, 225 x 450 x 18 cm overall Courtesy the artist, Victoria Miro Galley, London and Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo

Yayoi Kusama was born in 1929, in Matsumoto City in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. She grew up whilst the country was at war and part of her adolescence was spent sewing parachutes on the home front. Following the war, Kusama became an art student studying the traditional form of Nihonga painting, a formal Japanese technique using ground pigment and animal glues. Her interests began to shift from this tradition as she began exploring her visions and hallucinations through her artwork. She recalls experiencing these phenomena as early as ten years old, one day, looking at a red ower-patterned table cloth on the table, I turned my eyes to the ceiling and saw the same red ower pattern everywhere, even on the window glass and posts.1 In 1957 she moved to New York where she quickly emerged as an exciting young artist with her large Innity Net canvases, first exhibited at Brata Gallery in 1959. Kusamas work continued to develop through accumulation and aggregation of patterns and objects. Her painting and sculptural works were extended into sensory environments, such as the early Innity Mirror Room-Phallis Field (1965). She also staged significant performances and happenings across New York in the 1960s that addressed social and political concerns of the time. At the 1966 Venice Biennale, she exhibited Narcissus Garden, 1,500 mirrored spheres in the gardens outside the main pavilion. After consecutive bouts of illness, Kusama returned to Tokyo, Japan in 1973. Her practice diversified to include written composition whilst she underwent treatment for rijinsho or depersonalization syndrome. In 1977 she moved into the Seiwa Hospital, Tokyo and today and continues to maintain a flourishing studio practice in close proximity to the institution. The extraordinary breadth of Kusamas artistic career continues to be exhibited, including a work and performance at the 1993 Venice Biennale. Recent solo exhibitions have been held at Museum of Modern Art, New York (1998), National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo (2004-05) and the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands (2008).

1. Hoptman, L. Tatehata, A. Kultermann, U. Yayoi Kusama. Phaidon Press Ltd, London, 2000. Pg 35

TIMELINE
YAYOI KUSAMA
1929: Born in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. 1939: Remembers having first series of visions and hallucinations (Age 10). Produced the drawing Untitled (Mother). 1942-48: Training and practice in traditional Nihonga painting. 1941: Japanese bomb Pearl Harbour, Hawaii. 1948-51: Studied at the Arts and Crafts School, Kyoto Japan. 1955: Written correspondence with American artist Georgia OKeefe. 1957: Moved to United States to live and work, arriving first in Seattle. 1957-58: Arrived in new York and began studying at the Art Students League. 1959: First exhibition of Innity Net paintings at Brata Gallery, New York. 1962: Exhibits Accumulation soft sculptures at Green Gallerys group show, New York. Is the only female to take part in the widely acclaimed Nul (Zero) exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. 1963: Aggregation: One Thousand Boats show at Gertrude Stein Gallery, New York. 1964: Driving Image Show. First environment exhibited at Castellane Gallery, New York. 1965: Innity Mirror Room (Phallis Field). Begins first series of performances. 1966: Presents Narcissus Garden at the 33rd Venice Biennale. 1969: First man on the moon. c.1966: Walking Piece 1970: The Female Eunuch by Germaine Greer published. 1967-69: Stages happenings and performance across New York. 1973: Returns to Japan. 1977: Takes residence in Seiwa Hospital, Tokyo Japan. 1989: Began publishing collected poems and literary works. 1993: Selected to represent Japan at the Venice Biennale. Presents Innity Mirror Room (Pumpkin). 2000: Yayoi Kusama retrospective exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery, London. 2001-2: Yayoi Kusama exhibition at Le Consortium, Dijon, France. Toured to Denmark and Korea. 2004-07: Love Forever series. 1973: Vietnam war ends. First Sydney Biennale 1974: White Australia policy abolished by parliament. 1981: AIDS rst identied 1989: Tianamen Square Massacre, China. Berlin wall come down, Germany. 1993: Marcel Duchamp retrospective exhibition, Venice. 1997: Beginning of Asian economic crisis. The Controversial Sensation Exhibition is shown at the Royal Academy of Art, London. Tours to Berlin and New York. 1945: Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. World War II ends. c.1946: Abstract Expressionist movement begins in New York, United States. c.1950: Pop Art movement gains strength in United States. 1956: Videotape invented 1962: Andy Warhol presents silkscreen One Dollar Bill works at Green Gallerys group show , New York. (Sept) 1962: Claes Oldenburg exhibits first series of soft sculptures at Green Gallery, New York. c.1962: Minimalism resurfaces as a movement in reaction to Abstract Expressionism. 1965: Vietnam War begins. 1966: Mirror Room by Lucas Samaras c.1966: Womens Liberation movement begins. 1967: Referendum to allow Indigenous Australians to vote.

ARTWORLD & WORLD

1924: Surrealism founded by Andre Breton in Paris, France. 1930: The Great Depression 1939: World War II Begins

ARTIST STATEMENT
By Yayoi Kusama:
This letter was written by Yayoi Kusama especially for her exhibition at the museum of Contemporary Art. It was a spontaneous and generous gesture made by the artist to all visitors experiencing her exhibition in Sydney. The Museum has displayed Kusamas text within the exhibition. An original version in Japanese is also available.

My messaGe to tHe world: Love Forever

When I was about ten years old, I began painting pictures and making sculpture-like objects by lining up small pebbles from a river behind my parents house on the dried river bed. These are the origins of the forms that I have been creating throughout my life ever since I can remember, giving it my all. I have been treading a long path of my forevershining life seeking the truth, evolving continually. All my life I have had aspirations for world peace and love, with a deep and passionate hymn of praise to humanity. During this process, I always envision the continual and repetitive appearances and disappearances of beautygenerating hallucinations that well up in my mind. I named this phenomenon stereotypical repetition. During the days of my never-ending life of hard work, I developed a psychosomatic syndrome as a result of painting too many pictures. I have translated this into my work through a large number of diverse themes that include: Prisoner Behind a Curtain of Depersonalisation, Sex, Food Obsession, Aggregated Earth, Infinite Space of the Universe, Psychosomatic Art, Longing for the Universe, Driving Image, Cellular Thinking, Death of Vacuum, Are There Ends in the Universe? among others. From now until the last day of my life, I will keep developing my creative process and my artistic philosophy while maintaining an artistic position on everything. I may be physically getting older, but I am ever so enthusiastic now about creating art work. My consistent avantgarde approach to art, I think, has exerted a great influence on the art work of American and European artists, as well as other artists, especially Lucas Samaras Mirror Room, Claes Oldenburgs Soft Sculpture and Andy Warhols Stereotypical Repetition: Cow Wallpaper, in which cow heads are repeatedly shown on posters all over the walls. These are the historically famous titles Kusama invented. I have been involved in Pop art, Minimal art, Happenings, Environments, Avant-garde films and others, as well as in Zero in Europe, while pursuing and realising my philosophy of art. My ever inexhaustible energies will continue to evolve as long as I live beyond the limit of my body. The incredible beauty of humanity for which I say Love Forever. I have been struggling throughout my life with this everlasting message. I believe my aspirations will not fade away after I am gone and I want to leave it to those interested in my art as a message from Yayoi Kusama an eternal wish for peace and the renunciation of war based on humanity. YAYOI KUSAMA 2009

EXHIBITION OVERVIEW

Yayoi Kusama Clouds 2008 and Stars Innity (A.B.C) 2003 Installation view, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2009

This exhibition explores the extraordinary work of Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama. It reveals the coherence of her practice over many years and highlights the freshness and innovation she brings to themes she has explored consistently throughout her life. Kusamas early sculptures and environments from the 1960s, such as Innity Mirror Room-Phallis Field (1965) and her films of performances and happenings, are juxtaposed with the artists more recent installations, films, paintings and silkscreen works. The exhibition reflects Kusamas lifelong obsession with repetition and aggregation, and her visual, physical and sensory perceptions. The theme of obliteration by dots recurs throughout Kusamas lifes work. With discipline and self-control she has harnessed the visions and hallucinations she has experienced since childhood, to fuel her indefatigable creativity. This exhibition includes a selection of very early works from her formative years. In these, we recognize dots, nets and other accumulations that filled the artists vision from an early age. Kusamas recent installations include Fireies on the Water, Im Here but Nothing (2000-) and Invisible Life (all 2000) where the artist extends the concepts of reflection, repetition, illusion and disorientation. A new suite of 50 silkscreen works on canvas, Love Forever created between 2004 and 2007, is presented for the first time in Australia. Like the renowned Infinity Net and Dot paintings, these new works are characterised by obsessive repetition. The artist has covered every surface in myriad lines, sweeps, figurative and organic forms. Clouds (2008) is an all-encompassing sculptural environment of gigantic, inflatable forms in a darkened space. Yayoi Kusama has always been interested in creativity in a broad sense, and has worked across a range of disciplines, from dance, fashion and design to writing and musical composition as well as her astonishing paintings, bodies of silkscreen canvases, sculptures and environments seen in this exhibition. Her work has been highly influential to a new generation of artists and designers, as well as to contemporary visual art and culture. Her extraordinary perception, originality and uncompromising attitude have helped position Yayoi Kusama as one of the most acclaimed and respected contemporary artists working today. Judith Blackall Head, Artistic Programs, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
Yayoi Kusama: Mirrored Years has been organised by Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and is curated by Jaap Guldemond, (Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam) Franck Gautherot, Seungduk Kim (Le Consortium, Dijon). Presented in association with City Gallery Wellington. 2. Modified from the Yayoi Kusama: Mirrored Years curatorial interpretation, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney.

KEY THEMES
This section outlines some of the artists recurring themes and offers insight into four significant concerns of Kusamas art practice. These themes can be used as a basic scaffolding when analysing the artists work. Under each theme, three works that are included in the exhibition are listed to provide direct links between artwork and practice.

REPETITION AND ACCUMULATION: A VISUAL LANGUAGE

Repetition refers to the act of composing something again and again, with the overall sense of designs and motifs in constant re-occurrence. Accumulation involves gathering together, building up and amassing forms and patterns. In Yayoi Kusamas practice, repetition and accumulation function as art making techniques. They also function as a visual language for the viewer to interpret and engage with. For Kusama this visual language has culminated in her renowned use of dots and nets. The beginning of the artists signature signs and symbols can be seen in early drawings such as Untitled (mother) c.1939, which Kusama made when she was only 10 years old. The nets had the ability to act like a veil over the canvas and appeared in early paintings produced in New York from 1959. Through the development of her practice, the application of dots and nets has been extended to blanket objects, sculptural forms, bodies and entire spaces.

Artworks to look at:

Nets Obsession 2002 Narcissus Garden 1966 Women (TTWOP) 2005 from the Love Forever series

ABSTRACTION AND REPRESENTATION

Kusamas works have the ability to destabilise the viewers experience and allow them to slip between the recognition of various forms and structures. Her practice involves the abstraction of objects, spaces, environments and even bodies, through techniques like patterning, mirroring and reflecting. She creates formal relationships with repetitive symbols and motifs such as the dots, innity nets and phalli. These symbols also act as investigations into nonrepresentational forms of identity. In Kusamas earlier work, phallic forms protruded from everyday domestic objects to inhabit various environments. In more recent works such as The Moment of Regeneration (2004), these anthropomorphic objects continue to be present, however their shapes have been elongated and warped, becoming reminiscent of tentacles or sea creatures. The dots that obliterated paintings, sculptures and even the body have become more subtly referenced in works such as Fireies on the water (2000), where they have been reduced to tiny lights that glow on a never-ending horizon.

Artworks to look at:

Fireies on the Water 2000 The Moment of Regeneration 2004 The Earth In Late Summer 2004

INFINITY
Innity refers to a limitless time, space or distance that cannot be calculated. Kusamas early interest in this never-ending capacity can be seen in the Innity nets paintings begun in New York. The repetitive, intense patterning of the Innity net series was eventually extended into full-blown environments. From 1963 Kusama began producing Innity mirror rooms. Through these room-based environments and installations, Kusama has continued to explore the concept of infinity by growing these works in scale and building on their kaleidoscopic effect. Through methods of aggregation, mirroring and reflecting, Kusama creates a sense of inexhaustible space for the viewer. Their body is continually fragmented and patterned across the mirrored wall surfaces into infinity and without end.

Artworks to look at:

Innity Mirror Room- Phallis Field (or Floor Show) 1965 Innity Dots 2007 Invisible Life 2000

SELF- OBLITERATION
Self-obliteration refers to Kusamas attempt to fragment then erase the self through her art. This theme is linked closely to the idea of infinity and the sense of limitless space and time. Kusamas self-obliteration is strongly demonstrated through her application and repetition of dots. In a number of performances and happenings during the 1960s, she has applied dots in various sizes by sticking them down as well as painting them on. The artist has covered herself, others, objects and places in a blanket of dots, attempting to dismantle identity and free the self. She has continued to explore the concept of self-obliteration in her practice through installation works like Im here, but Nothing (2000-). The ever-present dots obliterate the living room environment, flattening out the 3-Dimensional space into a swathe of pattern and repetition.

Artworks to look at:

Flower Obsession (Sunower) 1968 Im here, but Nothing 2000 Soaring Spirit 2008

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Portrait Yayoi Kusama 2007 Courtesy the artist

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1. ARTIST AS ARTWORK: YAYOI KUSAMA

This case study looks at performing the self. It analyses how Kusama has taken on and challenged the role of the artist in relation to her work the audience and the world. Under each sub-heading there are Secondary Checkpoints to assist with making connections to key syllabus areas.

SECONDARY SYLLABUS LINKS

Conceptual framework Art Historical and Art Critical interpretation Artists Practice

The destination between the self and the world is not fixed but an ever- shifting boundary initiated in childhood and maintained throughout our lives3
Yayoi Kusama

VISIONS
SECONDARY CHECKPOINT
Evidence of Art Critical and Historical writing Throughout her life Yayoi Kusama has experienced visions and hallucinations of dots nets, patterns and colours. These visions began when she was a child and she continues to endure these phenomena. Historically, women have been synonymous with mental illness and references to female hysteria are rampant in the western worlds art history. The severity of Kusamas condition and her subsequent visions has been debated. It has been suggested that Kusama is either an artist who is prolific, ahead of her time and has staged critical feminist interventions, or that her ongoing artistic practice is evidence of the artists savvy self-publicising.4 The Surrealist artist Salvador Dali pioneered what he called a paranoiac- critical method in his practice. This was essentially a form of controlled hallucination that allowed the artist to document his subconscious through his art making. Like Dali, Kusamas visions were critical in the development of her visual language. The dots and nets are at the core of her practice and have become iconic symbols, allowing Kusama to re-create, re-interpret and analyse her visions through her art making. Rather than being a controlling ailment they have become a driving force in her art practice.

IDENTITY
SECONDARY CHECKPOINT
Post-Modern and Cultural Frames Conceptual Framework: ARTIST- ARTWORK- WORLD relationship Artists Practice Kusama is an artist who has fashioned and inserted her eccentric persona and identity into her works, forcing them to become inextricably linked. As an artist, Kusama has also experimented with a large number of creative forms and disciplines, including writing and composition, dance, fashion and design. Photographic documentation of Kusamas works is scarcely featured without the artist posing or performing, this creates a very unique dialogue between artist and artwork where one does not exist without the other. These images have been frequently used for publicity purposes and a number of self-portraits have been produced for this purpose as well. Playing on the artists fascination and obsession with narcissism, the MCA has chosen one of the artists self-portraits for the marketing campaign for Yayoi Kusama: Mirrored Years.
3. Posner, Helaine. Negotiating boundaries in the art of Yayoi Kusama, Ana Mendieta and Francesca Woodman. (edt.) Chadwick, Whitney. Mirror Images: women, surrealism and self-representation, MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, London, 1998 pp 159 12 4. Applin, Jo. Resisting Infinity. Yayoi Kusama. Victoria Miro, London, 2008.

By posing in and amongst her object and environment works in the 1960s, Kusama drew comparisons to the feminine clichs of young, beautiful, innocent and exotic. She has continued to use performance to experiment with these clichs throughout her career, examining her gender as well as her cultural background. These investigations of personal identity share a number of values with Surrealism, including disjunction, multiplicity and rupture.5 The artist largely explored these values during her period of living and working in New York. In works such as Walking Piece (c.1966) Kusama deals with the struggle to adapt to changes of self and environment and as a Japanese woman artist, she addresses feelings of isolation and cultural displacement.

EXHIBITION & PEFORMANCE

SECONDARY CHECKPOINT
Post-Modern practice Range and diversity of artistic practice In addition to painting, sculpture, installation and environments, Kusamas early practice involved a number of performances and happenings throughout the 1960s. These examined the artists personal, social and political concerns whilst illustrating her ability to engage with multiple creative forms. Kusamas presence at two Venice Biennales can attest to the artists strong links with performance and how she has challenged the role of the artist by incorporating herself into her work. In 1966 when the artist first participated in the Venice Biennale she presented Narcissus Garden outdoors, next to the Italian pavilion. Kusama was not officially selected for the exhibition but was welcomed to exhibit the 1,500 stainless steel spheres outside, the renowned Italian artist Lucio Fontana loaned her money to make the balls. The controversy arose when Kusama began selling the individual mirrored spheres of the work, stating to onlookers you can buy your narcissism. Whilst the work and performance was shut down by Biennale officials, Kusama had successfully critiqued the growing trend of art festivals and fairs that pushed the buying and selling of art as a commodity. As the artist, selling off her own work, she astonished viewers, collectors and galleries through this deant act. As the official representative for Japan in 1993, Kusama made a direct reference back to Narcissus Garden and her controversial performance, with the work Mirror Room (Pumpkin) (1993). Kusama produced small orange pumpkin-like sculptures, reminiscent of the multiple chrome spheres of Narcissus Garden. She then performed in a corresponding costume, within the space, offering the pumpkin-like sculptures to viewers as they entered.

Left: Yayoi Kusama at the 33rd Venice Biennale with Narcissus Garden 1966 1,500 stainless steel spheres Middle and Right: Yayoi Kusama Narcissus Garden 1966 Installation view, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2009 5. Op, cit. Posner. pp 158

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RELATIONSHIP TO FEMINISM
SECONDARY CHECKPOINT
Post-Modern practice: Questioning traditional models and concepts Conceptual Framework: ARTIST- WORLD relationship Kusamas work pre-dates Feminism yet contains multiple references to domesticity and feminist concerns. As the second wave of Feminism began in the late 1960s there was a lack of adequate critical scaffolding at that time to contextualise Kusamas work from a feminist perspective. Her sculptural works produced during the 1960s we completely covered with accumulations of phalli that protruded out from furniture, clothing and domestic objects. These accumulations are also evident in installations works such as Innity Mirror Room- Phallis Field (1965) and Walking on the Sea of Death (1981). They can be seen as an attempt to challenge male power by appropriating the phallus as a symbol of this power.6 There are similarities between Kusamas feminist references and the visceral work of German- American artist Eva Hesse. Hesses practice was concerned with exploring minimalist trends in sculpture using a variety of materials from fibreglass to fabric. Like Kusama, Hesses abstract references to the body were a way of examining gender, sex and power. Today Kusamas work has been substantially addressed from a feminist perspective. The more recent rise of retrospective and survey exhibitions on Kusamas practice has allowed viewers to be enlightened by her works pioneering references to feminism. It has also been considered that much of the feminist undertones in her early work came from a frustration at the New York art community for allowing men to dominate in theory, criticism and practice.7

CRITICAL RESPONSE
SECONDARY CHECKPOINT
Critical interpretation Role of the Art Critic In 1961 Kusama said her need to keep producing her paintings was a form of my resistance 8. Kusamas early minimal aesthetic can be understood as a partial reaction and opposition towards the reign of Abstract Expressionism in the New York art scene. Her paintings were captivatingly different from those produced by popular male painters and also stood as an alternative way of seeing and making art. Following on from her first solo exhibition at Brata Gallery, New York 1959, artist and critic Donald Judd took notice of Kusamas work and became an advocate of her practice. Judd described Kusamas Infinity Net paintings as being like slabs of massive, solid lace and advanced in concept. More recently critic Midori Yamamura has argued that Kusamas work pre-dated those of a number of significant pop-artists, including Andy Warhol and Claes Oldenburg. Kusamas sticker accumulations were being produced from 1962 before Warhols famous one-dollar bill works that bore a remarkable likeness in composition. Kusama was also producing her soft sculptures before Oldenburgs iconic series of floppy, fabric objects we know. Kusamas interaction with these artists was through group exhibitions at places such as Green Gallery and Gertrude Stein, New York. Midori and Laura Hoptman argue that her early work, and Kusama as an artist, was marginalised for being female and Japanese.

6. Op, cit. Polaine Pg 162 7. Op, cit. Hoptman. Pg 49-50 8. Op, cit. Applin.

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CASE STUDY FOCUS QUESTIONS:

PRIMARY
As a class, list the types of things Kusama has seen in her visions. When you look at the exhibition make another list as a class of where you can see these things and what they are on. Try to identify the art form as well as what its covered in. Eg. Nets on paintings, dots on sculptures.

Secondary
As a class, list the types of things Kusama has seen in her visions. When you look at the exhibition make another list as a class of where you can see these things and what they are on. Try to identify the art form as well as what its covered in. Eg. Nets on paintings, dots on sculptures. As a class, list the types of things Kusama has seen in her visions. When you look at the exhibition make another list as a class of where you can see these things and what they are on. Try to identify the art form as well as what its covered in. Eg. Nets on paintings, dots on sculptures.

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Yayoi Kusama The Moment of Regeneration 2004 sewn fabric, urethane, wood, paint, set of 55, dimensions variable Courtesy the artist and Victoria Miro Gallery, London.

The Moment of Regeneration is a sculptural installation comprising of 55 pieces that cluster together in the gallery space. This series of sprouting, anthropomorphic forms are reminiscent of sea creatures, crawling tentacles or some kind of unusual plant life. These sculptural forms are adapted, distorted and re-figured from soft sculpture accumulations in Kusamas earlier works, such as Innity Mirror Room (Phallis Field) (1965). Kusama has used urethane casting and wood to manipulate the scale and shape of these original forms. The brightly coloured and dotted surfaces of The Moment of Regeneration suggest objects that are animate, exotic and tropical- their patterning functions like a soft fabric skin that covers each form. For Kusama the polka dot has signified the sun, the earth and the moon whilst also symbolising the infinity of the universe. She has commented, Our earth is only one polka dot among a million stars in the cosmos. Polka dots are a way to innity. When we obliterate nature and our bodies with polka dot, we become part of the unity of our environment. 9 Whilst the artworks title indicates a sense of renewal and growth in nature, the dots could also symbolise an illness or an ailment. The polka dotted forms appear to be flourishing from the ground and unfurling towards the gallery ceiling. The forms could also be considered as a cluster of growths, surging through the concrete floor of the gallery. The Moment of Regeneration makes reference to both life and death by emphasising these as transitional modes in nature. The polka dot symbolism emphasises the cyclical motion of the universe, forever turning to renew itself.

SECONDARY CHECKPOINT
FRAMES ANALYSIS STRUCTURAL: Composition, materials, use of signs and symbols. SUBJECTIVE: Personal opinion and interpretation. What are these sculptural forms and what do they remind you of?

9. Yoshimoto, Midori. Performing the Self: Yayoi Kusama and her Ever-Expanding Universe. In Into Performance: Japanese women artists in New York, Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, New Jersey and London, 2005 Pg 72

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Left: Yayoi Kusama Innity-Nets OQABT 2007 (detail), acrylic on canvas, 304 x 540 cm, Collection Foundation Acid Cats, Oslo Right: Yayoi Kusama Innity Dots 2007 (detail), acrylic on canvas, 130 x 162 cm, Private collection, Sydney

Kusama has described the Innity Net paintings as being without composition- without beginning, end or centre10. These works have both an endless sense of pattern and repetition that suggests infinity, whilst also being confined to the measurements of the canvas. Kusamas initial series of Innity nets were the first works she produced in New York during the late 1950s and early 1960s. The artist employed neutral, white and crme shades of colour to produce nets that appear almost invisible but begin to softly surface as the viewer approaches the work. What appears to be monochromatic still remains textured and tonal, with shades of light and dark. The immense scale (her early works could be up to 10 metres long), contrasts the delicate, minimal yet detailed patterning of the nets, reminiscent of lace and crochet stitching. Kusamas choice of scale draws attention to the labour intensive methods so often involved in her art making and her belief in the artists authority over the machine and emphasis on the hand made. The scale can also be considered a response to the grand canvases being produced by male Abstract Expressionists of the 1960s. Kusamas Innity Nets offered an alternative aesthetic that the artist considered as an equally important way of seeing and making art. The Innity Net paintings are shown alongside Kusamas infinity dot works. This suggests a meeting of positive and negative forces (the dots as positive and the nets as negative) and as a result, a sense of balance. This equilibrium suggests that both Kusamas signature motifs, the dots and nets, exist in a duality.

SECONDARY CHECKPOINT
Artist working in a series, developing a Body of Work Role of the Curator: consider the placement of the works in the gallery space.

Op, cit. Applin.

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Yayoi Kusama Women Waiting for Spring (TZW) 2005 from the series Love Forever 2004-07 silkscreen on canvas 130.3 x 162 cm Courtesy the artist and Yayoi Kusama Studio, Tokyo

Love Forever is a series of 50 black and white silkscreen print canvases, each printed in an edition of 5. The images on each canvas move between abstraction and figuration and include female faces in profile, child-like bodies and long-lashed eyes. Like Kusamas iconic net and dot paintings, the obsessive repetition and accumulations in the Love Forever series becomes another form of the artists patterning. Their grid like presentation is also a salon style method of display, emphasising the enormity of the series as well as the labour intensity of her practice. Like a stream of consciousness, she would work for forty or fifty hours at a time, sketching and doodling obsessively and intensely. In regards to this series of work Kusama said, My plan was to display a large number of black and white canvases in a space. In the vocabulary of my generation this is called environment. This is an attempt to create a world by showing the rectangular-shaped canvases collectively.11
Yayoi Kusama

In Women Waiting for Spring (TZW) (2005), Kusama has layered multiple feminine profiles that appear absent of distinguishing features such as dimples, coloured hair or even eyebrows. Instead these faces in profile are filled with heavily patterned and densely accumulated eyes. These eyes form a blanket covering that obliterates the faces, suggesting a universal female identity. There are visual links between the Love Forever series and the Imaginary Portraits of artist Joan Miro. His works during the late 1920s and early 30s were suggestive of a similar surreal landscape with repetitive linear designs, patterning and organic forms. Kusama initially draws the images onto canvas using a marker pen, the works are then transferred to silkscreen to be printed. She sights this process as being essential to the durability and conservation of the image.

SECONDARY CHECKPOINT
ROLE OF THE CONTEMPORARY MUSEUM: At the MCA Love Forever is presented in one of the gallerys double height spaces. The series is hung on all four walls of the space in accordance to Kusamas design, in order to create an immersive environment.

11. Yayoi Kusama in conversation with Glen Scott Wright. Yayoi Kusama. Victoria Miro, London, 2008.

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Yayoi Kusama Walking Piece 1966 set of 24 colour slides transferred to DVD Courtesy the artist and Yayoi Kusama Studio, Tokyo

Walking Piece (c.1966) sees Kusama traversing the streets of New York in traditional Japanese dress. The original work was documented in 24 colour slides and each slide is a still image of the unfolding performance. Kusama immediately draws attention to her isolation by contrasting her exotic, colourful kimono against the faded streets, buildings and suburbs of New York. The artists cultural displacement also highlights issues of race, and gender- at the time both of these aspects of her identity made it increasingly difficult for success in the art world. Whilst Walking Piece can be understood as an insight into the isolation felt by the artist, it can also be considered a commentary on a cultural stereotype. Kusama has assumed the role of the exotic, Oriental woman in the work and as this feminine clich, she skirts around the streets under a parasol covered in flowers. Critic Laura Hoptman has argued that this method of Kusamas practice uses satire to play up a clichd female character, whilst also using it to promote herself as an artist and her artwork.12 In one image, the artist draws distinction between a busy grocery shopfront of advertisements and the delicate foreign woman she embodies. Against the prices per kilo of green beans and the cost of meat pies, her character stands out against the mass produced grid of supermarket advertising. In another still, it appears she starts to cry, covering her face with the sleeves of her kimono she leans against a harsh, grided brick wall. Walking Piece reveals how Kusamas persona and identity had become an integral part of her art practice that has continued to be explored throughout her career and through various other performances and happenings. It is an example of the artists approach to dealing with the subsequent struggles of living and working in foreign environment whilst successfully examining the role of the artist in providing social and cultural commentary.

SECONDARY CHECKPOINT
Post-Modern Practice Conceptual Framework: ARTIST- ARTWORK- WORLD relationship

12/ Op, cit. Hoptman. Pg 54

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Yayoi Kusama Im here but Nothing 2000- dot sheet, ultra violet fluorescent light, furniture, household objects, dimensions variable Installation view, 20 Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2009

2. INFINITE SPACE: YAYOI KUSAMA AND INSTALLATION

This case study examines two of Kusamas major installation artworks. It links their development to one of the artists earliest works, demonstrating how these installations are an extension of her drawing, painting and sculpture practice.

BACKGROUND
The exhibition Yayoi Kusama: Mirrored Years features six selected room environments the artist has produced since 1965. Kusamas installation practice was a natural extension from her initial painting and sculptural works that explored her obsession with repetition, accumulation, infinity and self-obliteration. The artist states: My nets grew beyond myself and beyond the canvases I was covering with them. They began to cover the walls and the ceiling and nally the whole universe. Yayoi Kusama, excerpt from an interview with Gordon Brown for WABC radio, 1963 Kusama has previously collaborated with museums, curators, builders, architects and Government bodies to carry out large-scale works in galleries and public spaces. For the audience, Kusamas installations allow them to experience a dizzying and hallucinatory environment, similar to the visions the artist has experienced throughout her life. She creates illusions of space through techniques like the use of mirrors and the intense repetition of her signature polka dots.

CREATING THE ILLUSION OF SPACE:

Innity mirror room- Phallis eld (oor show) 1965

Yayoi Kusama Innity Mirror Room- Phallis Field (or Floor Show) 1965 sewn stuffed fabric, board, mirror room 250 x 455 x 455 cm Courtesy the artist and Yayoi Kusama Studio, Tokyo

Innity Mirror Room- Phallis Field (or Floor Show) (1965) is a mirrored environment of reflection, with the floor covered in a bed of red and white polka dotted soft-sculptural forms. These forms vary in size and protrude upwards and around, entangling themselves in one another. The reflective mirrored walls and the grounds plush and colourful carpet creates the sense of innity and endless space. This reflective environment was initially created in her studio, and then exhibited at Castellane Gallery, New York in 1965. As a completely mirrored room alluding to infinite space, Kusamas work predates artist Lucas Samaras Mirrored room (1966), that included a reflective table and chair setting. Like Kusama, Samaras was also involved in performance, happenings and installation in New York during the 1960s. Critic Lucy Lippard has spoken of Kusamas 3-dimensional environments as having an emphasis on Surrealism and the body.13 Kusamas Innity Mirror Room- Phallis Field (or Floor Show) uses tactile sculptural forms and reflective surfaces to entice the viewer into a bizarre sensory experience. They become part of the work as their image is fragmented across the mirrored walls and obliterated into a patterned vista. A lost sense of background and foreground is experienced, as both seem to meld into one, dissolving the viewers sense of space.
13. Op, cit. Applin.

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This installation was remade by the artist in 1998 and has been previously exhibited at the MCA during the 2000 Sydney Biennale and located in the level 1 gallery. The installation has specific dimensions and every time its exhibited, a custom sized space is constructed to house the work. The soft sculptured floor covering is in tiled pieces that are laid in a grid format, completely blanketing the floor space.

REMAKING A VISION
Im here, but nothing (2000) In a collaboration between Kusama and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, the museum has re-interpreted the environment Im here, but nothing (2000). The original artwork simulated a traditional 1950s Japanese living room space and since 2000 has been multiple versions and interpretations. In 2009 the artist and the MCA have reconfigured Im Here, But Nothing as a typical 1950s Australian living room. The furniture and objects have been sourced across Sydney in order to complete the installation. Rather than projecting the image of dots onto the furniture, Kusama uses stick- on ultra-violet neon dots that glow under UV fluorescent light. 150,000 dots were used in the installation and applied by the artists studio assistants over 3 days. They completely cover every surface of the environment, across the walls, over furniture and even on old books and records. The audience has the opportunity to walk around the setting and absorb the works domestic situation that even obliterated by glowing dots, appears hauntingly empty. In a way the space has contracted a beautiful yet isolating sickness and the neon dots represent its symptoms. Through this work Kusama makes direct reference to her psychological condition and the visions she has experienced since childhood. Im Here, But Nothing allows the audience to understand a similar state of hallucination that has previously been experienced by the artist. When the viewer enters the work they experience a flattening out of 3-dimensional space and a sense of obliteration.

Top Left: Installing Im here, but Nothing, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, February 2009 Top Right: Etsuko Sakurai from the Yayoi Kusama Studio installing fluorescent dots within Im here, but Nothing, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, February 2009 Bottom left and Right: Yayoi Kusama Im here but Nothing 2000- dot sheet, ultra violet fluorescent light, furniture, household objects, dimensions variable Installation view, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2009 22

INSIGHT TO PRACTICE AND PROCESS

Untitled (Mother) c.1939 Links between Im here, but Nothing and the very early work Untitled (mother) c.1939 offer a unique insight into the development of the artists practice. Kusamas specific choice of a domestic environment in Im Here, but Nothing alludes back to the artists difficult childhood and the overbearing presence of her mother. Kusamas choice to pursue a career as an artist in post-war Japan was not initially supported by her family. Coupled with the visions and hallucinations that started at a young age, this problematic time in the artists life is a significant point investigated through her art making. Kusamas intimate portrait was the beginning of future attempts to understand and examine the idea self-obliteration. As the exhibition demonstrates, this interest would grow into large-scale paintings, sculptural forms, installations, environments, performances and happenings staged throughout her career. Completed when Kusama was only 10 years old, Untitled (Mother) is an intimate portrait of the artists mother, dressed in a traditional Japanese kimono and covered with dots. On the reverse there is also a still life drawing of a vase of flowers blanketed in net motifs. As the earliest work included in the exhibition, this drawing demonstrates the beginnings of a much later visual vocabulary of dots and nets that would become Kusamas signature symbols to explore herself and her identity through her art.

Yayoi Kusama Untitled c.1939 pencil on paper, 24.8 x 22.5 cm Courtesy the artist and Yayoi Kusama Studio, Tokyo

SECONDARY CHECKPOINT
Role of the contemporary art museum Post-Modern practice: collaboration with institution, re-interpretation of previous work Subjective Frame: confused sensory experience of the viewer in Kusamas environments

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CASE STUDY FOCUS QUESTIONS:

PRIMARY
View the work Untitled (c.1939) and identify how the artist has made this work. Who could the portrait be of? What pattern is covering the portrait? Then view the artwork Im Here, but Nothing (2000-), where is this pattern and how has it changed from the drawing?

SECONDARY
Discuss Kusamas collaboration with the MCA to re-interpret the work Im Here, But Nothing (2000-). After visiting the work, list the differences between the typical Australian living room displayed in the work and the contemporary living space you have a home today. What has changed and what remains the same? Describe the relationship between the artwork and the audience in Im Here, But Nothing (2000). Identify who or what comprises these agencies in you answer.

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LEARNING IDEAS & FOCUS QUESTIONS

PRIMARY
Pre- visit:
Look up Japan and the City Matsumoto, Nagano, where Yayoi Kusama was born. What are some of the things that make Japan different to Australia? And what are some of the similarities between these countries? Discuss what is in an art museum and what we are going to see. This can be broadened to why this artist makes artworks and what she makes them about.

In the gallery:
Whilst moving through the gallery, identify the different types of artworks Yayoi Kusama has made (eg. paintings, drawings, sculptures). Ask the students to name these forms as they go. PRACTICAL ACTIVITY: Visit the work Invisible Life (2000), in a single line move through the corridors. Look closely at your reflection in the mirrors. Do you look the same or different to how you look in your mirror at home? Sit down in the gallery and remember what you looked like. On a cut out circle of paper, draw what you remember of your reflection in the mirrors. PRACTICAL ACTIVITY: Visit the work The Moment of Regeneration (2004). Look closely at patterns and colours and describe these. What could these strange objects be? Get each student to draw an everyday object, place, person or even their pet and cover them using the polka dot pattern.

Post- visit:
Identify what was seen as a group; what forms (i.e. mediums) did the artist make artworks with? (Eg. paintings, sculptures etc.) What are some of the patterns we looked at? (i.e. dots), how many different ways did the artist use dots? (i.e. on paintings, on soft sculptures, dots reflected in mirrors etc.) PRACTICAL ACTIVITY: Look at the portrait drawing you did in the gallery, when you had to remember what your reflection looked like in the mirrors of Invisible Life (2000). As a class, cut out lots of different sized and coloured polka dots, use these dots as well as the portrait dots done in the gallery, to cover a section of your classroom.

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SECONDARY (Years 7-10)

Pre- visit:
Research task: Find out one piece of information on the artist and/or her artworks that would be relevant to each of the FRAMES and identify why. For example: -STRUCTURAL: The artist uses dots and nets in her paintings. Personal signs/symbols. -SUBJECTIVE: The artist did live performances and staged happenings in New York during the 60s. An emotional response to what was going on around her. -CULTURAL: The artist was born in Japan and studied traditional Japanese painting techniques. The artists cultural background and identity. -POST-MODERN: The artist has experimented with costume, fashion and has also written books. Artist works with a variety of creative forms. As a class, discuss how artists make and develop a body of work, why and how do artists do this? Yayoi Kusama is an artist who works across a variety of forms, what other artists do you know that make artwork from more than one medium? (i.e. painting and video, sculpture and installation). Revise the structural frame focusing on signs/ symbols and why and how artists develop a visual vocabulary? How do we look for and identify these?

In the gallery:
ACTIVITY: Focus on one of the artists room environments, taking note of the title, size, medium etc. Write a paragraph analysing it through the structural frame and another paragraph through the subjective frame. Compare and contrast your responses as a group. Look at Narcissus Garden (1966) and Soaring Spirit (2008). Discuss how the artist has employed her visual vocabulary in these works. What forms have been revisited and what methods of display has Kusama used? How has the artist responded to the gallery space through this installation? View the work Walking Piece (c.1966) and identify how the artist has documented this performance. Discuss how the work uses signs and symbols to suggest a sense of isolation and displacement.

Post- visit
Discuss Kusamas room environment works: focus on your subjective response as a viewer. How does this differ from reading about this particular work or seeing images of it in a book? Write about and describe one of your experiences in a Kusama environment. Individually collect reviews and articles published on the Yayoi Kusama: Mirrored Years exhibition. Look in newspapers, magazines and art journals for these and keep them in your VAPD (Visual Arts Process Diary). Use these examples and well as your own opinion to critically review the exhibition.

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SECONDARY (Years 11-12)

Pre-visit:
Using the artist, art and world timeline in this resource, summarise the key moments in the Kusamas career whilst also considering other artists and the world around her. Is there a relationship between the artists practice and significant events in history? Include a brief description as well as dates of significant artworks and exhibitions. Discuss the importance of artists practice in making/developing a body of work. Use the timeline and biography you have compiled to support your argument with examples. As a class, conduct contextual research into the New York art scene during the 1950s and 60s. Focus on significant movements, artists and exhibitions that took place or were present at this time. Compile an image library to represent this period.

In the gallery:
Develop a list of all the forms that Kusamas art has taken throughout her career. Be specific i.e. Walking Piece is a performance that has been documented by a series of 24 colour slides. How does Kusamas work address feminist concerns? Locate 2 artworks that could be argued to contain a feminist perspective. What materials, methods or objects has Kusama used to draw attention to this? Write down your observations of the gallery space, including the design features and display methods used throughout the exhibition. Take note of different lighting techniques, coloured walls and the presence of written information on the works. How do these features support the meaning of the artworks?

Post- visit:
In the exhibitions curatorial interpretation, the curator states that Kusamas earlier works have been juxtaposed with the artists more recent work in order to reflect on life long themes and concerns in her practice. Incorporating your observations from the gallery visit, analyse how successful you think the exhibition is in terms of this curatorial approach. Art critic Jo Applin has argued that Kusamas work has a complex relationship with Minimalism. On one hand her clear-cut visual vocabulary seeks to de-lineate the image with dots, nets and abstracted reflections. On the other hand the serial repetition in Kusamas practice can be considered obsessive and linked with Surrealism. Discuss this statement as a group then individually write a response that addresses this argument in relation to 3 of Kusamas works you have seen. Identify characteristics that relate to and differ from Minimalism and Surrealism and use the frames to analyse relevant signs, symbols, motifs and forms.

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GLOSSARY OF TERMS
Abstract Expressionism Abstract expressionism was an American postWorld War II art movement. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve worldwide influence and also the one that put New York City at the centre of the art world, formerly occupied by Paris. Its characteristics include an anti-figurative aesthetic, spontaneity or the impression of spontaneity in painting and sculpture. Artists involved in the movement include Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and Mark Rothko. Aggregation A total or collection of things added together, or the process of adding them together. Anthropomorphic Ascribing human form or attributes to a being or thing not human. Collaborate In art terms refers to the process of working with another person or group in order to realize a creative project. This could be other artists as well as professionals from completely different industries, such as scientist or engineers. Clich Anything that has become trite or commonplace through overuse. Disjunction A disconnection of joined parts or things. Domesticity Refers to a household act, activity, duty or chore. Feminism Is a discourse that involves various movements, theories and philosophies, which are concerned with gender difference and the equality for women, and the campaign for womens rights and interests. Happening An unconventional dramatic or artistically orchestrated performance, often a series of discontinuous events involving audience participation. Hallucination A visual, auditory or tactile experience or perception that has a compelling sense of reality. Usually resulting from a mental disorder or as a response to a drug. Hysteria An emotionally unstable state brought about by a traumatic experience. Innity Innity refers to a limitless time, space or distance that cannot be calculated. Minimalism A non-representational style in sculpture and painting, which arose in the 1950s. Minimalist artists detail and gesture and used pure, reduced compositions or simple, massive forms.

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Modernism A style or movement in 20th century arts, which consciously rejected classical or traditional forms and searched for new modes of expression. These new forms of expression were a response in changes to technology, travel and ideas exchanged in the late 19th century across Western Europe. Monochromatic One colour or the use of tones in only one colour. Motif A recurring subject, theme or idea that can take the shape of a distinctive form in an artwork or design. Multiplicity The state of being multiple or varied. A considerable number or variety. Narcissism A fascination with oneself, excessive self-love, vanity. Obliteration Something that is erased or obscured, leaving no trace. Oriental Referring to persons from countries in Eastern Asia, including China and Japan. Phalli The plural of phallus. Refers to the male sexual organ as the generative power in nature. Phenomenon Something that is perceived or experienced and can be considered truly extraordinary and marvellous. Pop Pop art is a movement that emerged in the late 1950s in the United States. It challenged tradition by asserting an artists use of the mass-produced visual commodities and is characterised by themes and techniques drawn from popular culture. Significant artists include Andy Warhol and Claes Oldenburg. Post-modern A late 20th century style and concept in the arts, architecture and criticism. Typical features include a deliberate mixing of styles and media, conscious use of earlier styles and conventions and the incorporation of images relating to the consumerism and mass communication of society. Rupture A break in, or the breaking apart of something. Satire The use of wit, especially irony and sarcasm, to critique or make a comment. Site specic Refers to an artwork created for, or in response, to a specific space. Self- obliterate Refers to Kusamas attempt to fragment then erase the self through her art. Stereotype An oversimplied or standardised image or idea of a person, place or object.

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Surrealism Surrealism is a movement that spans visual art, literature and cultural beliefs that began in the early-1920s in Europe. Characteristics include the exploration of self, the unconscious and feature the element of surprise, unexpected juxtapositions. Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale is a major international and contemporary art exhibition that takes place once every two years in Venice, Italy. It began in 1895 and is the worlds longest running Biennale. Visceral Relating to or affecting the body. Urethane Urethane is a family of rubber and plastic materials that are used for making molds. Urethane rubber is widely known for its durable properties, being abrasion-resistant and extremely malleable.

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FURTHER READING & RESOURCES

ExHiBition Resources
Yayoi Kusama: Mirrored Years. (Exhibition catalogue). Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam/ Le Consortium, Dijon. Les presses du reel, France, 2009.

FurtHer ReadinG
Applin, Jo. Resisting Infinity. Yayoi Kusama. Victoria Miro Gallery, London 2008. Hartney, Eleanor. Art & Today. Phaidon Press inc, 2008. Heingartner, Douglas. Yayoi Kusama (exhibition review). Frieze Magazine. October 2008. Hoptman, L. Kultermann, U. Tatehata, A. Yayoi Kusama, Phaidon Press Ltd, London, 2000. Koplos, Janet. The Phoenix Returns. Art In America Magazine. February 1999. Kusama, Yayoi. Hustlers Grotto: Three Novellas. (Translated by Ralph F. McCarthy). Wandering Mind Books, Berkeley, California, 1997. Love Forever: Yayoi Kusama 1958-68. (Exhibition catalogue) Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1998. Nakajima, Izumi. Yayoi Kusama between Abstraction and Pathology. (edt.) Pollock, Griselda. Psychoanalysis and the image: transdisciplinary perspectives, Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Oxford, 2006. Posner, Helaine. The self and the world: negotiating boundaries in the art of Yayoi Kusama, Ana Mendieta and Francesca Woodman. (edt.) Chadwick, Whitney. Mirror Images: women, surrealism and self-representation, MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, London, 1998. Skilbeck, Ruth. Infintiy Nets and Polka Dots. Australian Art collector Magazine. Issue 47 January- March 2009. Solomon, Andrew. Dot dot dot: Artforum Profile Yayoi Kusama, Artforum, February 1997. The Parkett Series with Contemporary Artists. Maurizio Cattelan, Yayoi Kusama, Kara Walker. No. 59, 2000. Yoshimoto, Midori. Into Performance: Japanese women artists in New York, Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, New Jersey and London, 2005. Yayoi Kusama: Eternity-Modernity. (Exhibition catalogue). National Museum of Modern Art Tokyo, 2004.

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WeB resources
http://www.yayoi-kusama. jp http://www.roslynoxley9.com.au/artists/49/Yayoi_Kusama/profile/ http://www.coolhunting.com/archives/2007/08/yayoi_kusama.php http://qag.qld.gov.au/collection/contemporary_asian_art/yayoi_kusama http://www.boijmans.nl/en/7/kalender/calendaritem/97 http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9907E7D61630F936A15756C0A9619C8B63 http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0DEEDE163AF932A15754C0A9669C8B63 http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DEFDE1631F933A25754C0A96E958260&sec=&spon=&pagewant ed=2 http://www.moma.org/collection/details.php?artist_id=3315&section_id=bibliography

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The exhibition Yayoi Kusama: Mirrored Years is organised by Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Curated by Jaap Guldemond (Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen), Franck Gautherot and Seungduk Kim (Le Consortium in Dijon, France) and presented in association with City Gallery Wellington. Education kit written by Kate Scardifield, MCA Educator. Thanks to Judith Blackall, Isabel Finch, Justine McLisky and Emma Nicolson. All images courtesy the artist and Yayoi Kusama Studio, Tokyo. the artist

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