A short little post about this one, as I'm sure you've seen it all on Instagram, but at least you get a cute/rubbish selfie of me and Hanswan.
We somehow managed to squeeze in visiting the highly anticipated Yayoi Kusama exhibition, at the Victoria Miro Gallery in Old Street. As far as I know it's new works (I'm not really a Kusama expert, but I love spots, pumpkins and red wigs), and although there were only a few things there, Hannah and I enjoyed ourselves without having to endure a crazy queue! Top tip, get there for 10am on a Wednesday morning and you get the whole effect without the Disneyland queues.
Of course a highlight was the glowing yellow pumpkin room that everyone is taking selfies in...we got a whole 20 seconds which is well enough time to take an alright selfie, although I'm not great at them. Obviously it's only a teeny tiny box, with a little corridor bit for 3 people maximum, and then lots a great pumpkins surrounded by some very effective mirrors. Fantastic kawaii factor.
What was also lovely was that there was a few outdoor works (although one of them got flooded by the crazy storms we've had recently...) and although it was a bit smelly, I enjoyed the effect of all the floating silver balls in the pond. I loved the texture of the green spotty algae in the water and the reflective silver, and no doubt the effect was to emulate the spots that she uses in her work. I can imagine this as a beaded jacket don't you? Matt green sequins and giant baubles would be great...
Then last but not least, there were some of her paintings upstairs, overlooking the garden and the surrounding flats. They were mostly the textural sort, mirroring the baubles and confetti algae on the pond, but also to finish off, a lovely golden pumpkin painting.
I mean, I'm sure all of this has some kind of conceptual monologue. But with all things considered, I love the fun of it all, and after hearing some of the Japanese artists at a talk late last year for the Kawaii exhibition out in Farnham, I can relate Kusama's work to this timeless, transcendental concept of kawaii. What I admire about it is that it is beautiful, colourful, and wonderfully consumable. It doesn't have to be something with 'meaning' beyond its beauty and pattern, its just wonderful to be around and frankly, makes me very happy. Shame that I couldn't really get anything in the shop, never mind.
