REGENERATING THE COMMON POLKA DOT Despite having been around since the late 1950s, Yayoi Kusama, now in her early eighties is still going strong and very much in demand. Through her obsession with repetition, pattern and accumulation, Kusama has created art performances, sculptures and installations which incorporate her trademark polka dots in numerous forms. Since the age of ten, Kusama has been producing with ‘self obliteration’ which came to her through hallucinations. She believes it is the process of being subsumed into your surroundings and losing all boundaries through visual stimulation. Saying, “a polka-dot has the form of the sun, which is a symbol of the energy of the whole world and our living life, and also the form of the moon, which is calm. Round, soft, colourful, senseless and unknowing, Polka-dots become movement. Polka dots are a way to infinity.” Whilst living in New York from the 1950s - 1970s, Kusama became an instigator of ‘happenings’, meetings with like minded artisans to protest against social injustice, such as the Vietnam war and the American elections through the creation of artworks. Although during her time in America, she exhibited with the likes of Andy Warhol and earned comparisons with Jackson Pollock, she moved back to Japan in 1973, living as an eccentric national treasure ever since. Most recently she was commissioned by Lancôme to design the 10th anniversary packaging for their Juicy Couture lip glosses in 2009 and has a number of exhibitions in Japan this autumn. Kusama’s work is vibrant, daring and avant garde. She continues to lead the way by bringing abstract pattern into the everyday through oversized sculptures, polka dot buildings and regenerating city centre walkways. Her work remains a constant inspiration to abstract pattern lovers worldwide.
7