Yayoi Kusama

signed, titled in English and dated 2005 on the base

Fuji TV Gallery, Tokyo

There is loss of paint on the base where the foot of the mannequin rests, possibly due to frequent friction. On the hand where the bag customarily hangs, there is some yellow and blue paint that should have come from the bag. Otherwise the work is in good condition overall.
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Yayoi Kusama produced her first Infinity Net paintings in the 1950s – vast mural-sized canvases, entirely covered in rhythmic undulations of small, thickly painted loops. According to Kusama the polka dots and Infinity Net patterns in her work represent opposing aspects of the same underlying pattern.  By repeating her patterns ad infinitum she directly confronts her fears of "self-obliteration"; the repetitive imagery constitutes a memento mori. She is quoted as saying, "Through self-obliteration of one polka dot which is me, my soul returns forever to the universe, via transmigration, as one of the interminable polka dots. Death is negative and life is positive. 'Infinity Net' embodies negative and positive, which has been one of my artistic themes." [1]

 

The current work Self-Obliteration (2005) harks back to her work Driving Image (1959-64), which consisted of a room, walled with Infinity Net paintings, and filled with a variety of objects all covered in net patterns or dots painted in complementary colours, including adult female mannequins and a smaller female child mannequin, a television set, a mirrored dressing table, kitchen chairs and a table set for tea with teapot, cups and saucers, and high-heel shoes arranged on a step ladder and scattered on the floor.  Art critic Ed Sommer wrote at the time of the show, "Unified in their homogenous skin, the objects seemed released from their customary functions. Defunctionalized, new, unfamiliar, they nevertheless demanded recognition: 'That's a brush, a comb, a plate.' But simultaneously, our perception was troubled as the separate, distinguishable things tended to dissolve. The blond and brown hair of the dummies, the large looking-glass of the dressing table... were the only remnants of our diversely surfaced world." [2]  In the current work however, even the mannequin's hair has now been covered with the Infinity Net pattern, confirming Kusama's fear that eventually nothing can escape the process of "Self-Obliteration".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[1] Kusama Yayoi – Soul Burning Flashes, Exhibition Catalogue, Fuji Television Gallery, 1988.

[2] Ed Sommer, 'Letter from Germany: Kusama at Galerie M.E.Thelen', Art International, No. 10, Lugano, October 1966.