yayoi kusama's mirror rooms, pumpkins and paintings abound in london

yayoi kusama’s mirror rooms, pumpkins and paintings abound in london
(above) ‘all the eternal love I have for the pumpkins’, 2016
wood, mirror, plastic, acrylic, LED | 292.4 x 415 x 415 cm | 115 1/8 x 163 3/8 x 163 3/8 in
image courtesy of victoria miro gallery

unfolding across victoria miro gallery’s three london locations and waterside garden, an exhibition by famed japanese artist yayoi kusama features a monumental collection of paintings, pumpkin sculptures, and mirror rooms created especially for this presentation.

at the wharf road galleries, kusama has created three mirror rooms: ‘all the eternal love I have for the pumpkins’, ‘chandelier of grief’, and ‘where the lights in my heart go’. the immersive kaleidoscopic expanses place viewers at the center of a universe of ever-changing impressions. alongside the reflective rooms, new paintings continue kusama’s lifelong preoccupation with the multiplicity of polka dots and scalloped ‘infinity net’ patterns. described by the artist as a form of ‘active self-obliteration’, the obsessive duplication of these forms on canvas is drawn from hallucinations she first experienced as a child. finally, the pumpkin — another motif that she has returned to throughout her career — is also presented as new mirror polished sculptures.

‘all the eternal love I have for the pumpkins’, 2016
image courtesy of victoria miro gallery

detail of ‘all the eternal love I have for the pumpkins’
image courtesy of victoria miro gallery

‘where the lights in my heart go’, 2016
stainless steel, aluminium | 300 x 300 x 300 cm | 118 1/8 x 118 1/8 x 118 1/8 in
image courtesy of victoria miro gallery

‘chandelier of grief’, 2016
steel, alumunium, one-way mirror, acrylic, chandelier, motor, plastic, LED | 353.8 x 556.3 x 481.8 cm | 139 1/4 x 219 1/8 x 189 3/4 in
image courtesy of victoria miro gallery

installation view at victoria miro gallery — 16 wharf road, london
image courtesy of victoria miro gallery

‘pumpkin (L)’, 2016
mirror polished bronze | 152 x 120 cm | 59 7/8 x 47 1/4 in
image courtesy of victoria miro gallery

at the mayfair gallery, new paintings are presented from kusama’s ongoing series ‘my eternal soul’. each of the works are flatly painted as a monochrome background, and are filled with imagery like eyes, faces, and indeterminate forms in often pulsating color combinations. improvisatory, fluid and instinctual, these works emphasize kusama’s constantly-evolving oeuvre over seven decades.

installation view at victoria miro mayfair — 14 st george street, london
image courtesy of victoria miro gallery