Mesmeric, captivating and imaginative.
These are just some of the adjectives I would use to honour the extraordinary work of 95-year-old Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama.
Photos by Sean Fennessy and Kate Shanasy
In fact, superlatives all but fail me in describing her remarkable legacy.
She has so many bold, breathtaking and joyous works.
Two hundred of her pieces are now on display across the ground floor of the NGV International.
The chronological exhibition is drawn from the artist’s personal collection, private collections and leading institutions across Japan, Southeast Asia and Australia.
She is renowned globally for her idiosyncratic use of pattern, colour and symbols. Importantly, she transcends any cultural divide.
NGV International is now home to one of the most comprehensive retrospective exhibitions of Yayoi’s material anywhere in the world.
They span her eight-decade practice and include the global unveiling of her most recent immersive infinity mirror room work.
It in are balls of sparkling light filling a seemingly infinite celestial universe. It generates wonder and delight, so I couldn’t help myself, I had to make a repeat visit. To cater to demand, each is limited to 30 seconds, as are other popular crowd-pleasers.
The mirrored immersive theme resonates throughout the exhibition and this is one of many showstoppers.
In fact, there is a total of 10 of Yayoi’s immersive artworks – the most ever assembled in a single location.
Surrounded by black polka dots (Kusama’s signature, alongside pumpkins) on striking yellow walls and on the ceiling, I step up onto a small box. I stare into a small opening and am awe struck.
In front of me again is the illusion of infinity within a confined space. There are black polka dotted pumpkins seemingly everywhere. I went back three times. That exhibit alone has such overwhelming impact.
Another of renown is a tentacled, blow-up, six-metre-high installation, featuring yellow polka dots on a black background. It’s title: The Hope of the Polka Dots Buried in Infinity Will Eternally Cover the Universe, 2019. Oh my. You guessed it. Another repeated visit followed.
The exhibition also includes the Australian debut of the hugely impactful Dancing Pumpkin in the NGV forecourt.
It is a towering five-metre-tall yellow-and-black polka-dotted bronze sculpture, conceived in 2020, which you can walk under and around. A photo is all but mandatory.
Another highlight is Narcissus Garden, 1966/2024, a new iteration of the installation Kusama first presented unofficially at the Venice Biennale in 1966.
It is comprised of 1,400 stainless silver balls, each 30cm in diameter, immediate visible as you enter the Gallery.
Meanwhile, in the Great Hall, enormous, inflated spheres float overhead.
Two of the largest interactive exhibits showcase domestic interiors – one in all white specifically focusing on children.
As you enter these spaces, you are handed peel off stickers (of a red flower and brightly colour dots – yellow, blue, green, pink and orange).
You are encouraged to stick these on any object or space in the rooms. Just plain fun for little and big kids alike.
The exhibits include sketches, drawings, paintings, sculpture, film, photography and fashion.
NGV is staging something mighty special, about which I can’t speak of highly enough.
It is an experience designed to entice and excite, and it certainly achieved that for me. I was often transfixed. Allow yourself two to three hours to see everything.
And Kusama’s vision has also been captured beyond the walls of the NGV.
More than 60 plane trees alongside St Kilda Road are now covered in her pink and white polka dotted artwork.
Yayoi Kusama is on display at NGV International until 21st April, 2025. For further information and tickets go to: NGV.MELBOURNE