The Speed Art Museum is excited to unveil Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrored Room – LET’S SURVIVE FOREVER. This installation marks the first time an “infinity room” has been presented in Kentucky and is on special loan from the Art Gallery of Ontario. The immersive exhibit envelops the visitor inside a large, mirrored space with stainless-steel spheres suspended from the ceiling and arranged on the floor providing reflections of the visitor uniquely in each. The reflective spheres recall Kusama’s installation Narcissus Garden, which was first shown at the 1966 Venice Biennale.
LET’S SURVIVE FOREVER is a 90-second “immersive experience,” where visitors are encouraged to contemplate the meaning o “infinity” though an illusory mirrored space that provides introspection and optical play.
Many consider Kusama one of the most important and well-known living artists in the world today. “It’s not everyday that a museum will have an artwork like this on display,” said Speed Director Raphaela Platow. “This is one of only a few recent presentations of Kusama’s work anywhere in the South, providing our community a firsthand opportunity to experience and engage with a pioneering and historically significant work of immersive art.” She said. “It is truly something to behold, and offers and opportunity for self-inquiry and catharsis, both individual and collective.”
Born in 1929 in Tokyo, this is and example of one of Kusama’s seminal artworks that explores ideas of introspection and “self-obliteration” through repetition and play with space, light, color, and time. An icon of global contemporary art, Yayoi Kusama has eclipsed art historical categorization even as her multifaceted practice has found kinship over the decades with movements such as minimalism, pop art, and surrealism.
“It’s thrilling to host one of Kusama’s signature, immersive ‘Infinity Rooms.’ The artist, who recently turned 95, has become a true icon of contemporary culture through not only her artworks and performances but also her collaborations with fashion houses, design brands and so much more,” said Tyler Balckwell, Curator of Contemporary Art at the Speed. Over the decades, Kusama has become a unique, transgressive trailblazer for women as a female artist in a male-dominated art world. Now, here in Kentucky for the first time, we can all enter her imagination simply by walking into her mirrored artwork.”
Infinity Lab at the Speed
In addition to the Infinity Room, visitors are also encouraged to visit the “Infinity Lab” where they can continue their experience by engaging with reflective materials to tap into their own creativity, explore ideas of “infinity” and illusion, and build a community-created, evolving installation.
“It’s very open-ended.” said Karen Gillenwater, Speed’s Director of Learning, Engagement and Belonging. “Guests can create a sculpture out of foil provided in the lab, and then select a spot in the lab to display it, or they can cover furniture and other objects with reflective materials and hang out and enjoy the space. We have intentionally made it very inviting and family friendly.”
The exhibit will be on display thru January 12th and tickets are available at Speedmuseum.org
Photo credit: All images courtesy of ©YAYOI KUSAMA. INFINITY MIRRORED ROOM – LET’S SURVIVE FOREVER, 2017. Courtesy of the artist, David Zwirner, Ota Fine Arts, and Victoria Miro. Collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario
