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Home , Billy Apple, Infinity (de Rivera), Yayoi Kusama

: Mirrored Years Secondary School Education Resource Kit

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City Gallery Wellington is managed by the Wellington Museums Trust with major funding support from the Wellington City Council. City Gallery Wellington Education Programme is a Ministry of Education Learning Experiences Outside the Classroom provider. Image: Yayoi Kuma, Dots Obsession-Day (detail), 2008. Mixed media. Installation view: “JAPAN! CULTURE + HYPER CULTURE” at The Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C. Courtesy: / Ota Fine Arts, © Yayoi Kusama, Yayoi Kusama Studio. Education Resource Kit INTRODUCTION & EXHIBITION DETAILS 03 How to use this Education Resource Kit 04 Exhibition Introduction: Yayoi Kusama: Mirrored Years 04 Artist profile: Yayoi Kusama 05 Artist’s statement: My message to the world 06 Exhibition themes • Altered perception/optical illusion • Immersive environments/physicality and scale • Repetitive pattern/obsessive art-making processes • Identity, persona, and self-obliteration

EDUCATION PROGRAMME 08 • Education Programme and Curriculum/NCEA links 09 • Pre and post visit activity suggestions CONTEXTS, CONCEPTS AND PROCESSES 11 Timeline 12 Artist’s techniques and processes • Installation • Screen printing • Sculpture/soft sculpture • Painting • Performance/video 13 Related art genres • • Op Art • • • Feminism • 15 Te Ao Māori: Mātauranga Māori concepts EXTENSION ACTIVITIES 16 Māori artist comparisons: Reuben Paterson 17 Shona Rapira Davies 18 Visual art project ideas • ‘Kusama’ your classroom • Kusama fashion parade • Suspended sculptures • Soft sculptures • Mirror magic • Repeat pattern prints 20 Art terms glossary 21 Te Reo Māori glossary 22 Online resources and further reading

ARTWORK ANALYSIS 23 Artwork analysis: Yayoi Kusama, Walking on the Sea of Death, 1981

 How to use this Education Resource Kit

Yayoi Kusama, Narcissus Garden 1996. Installation view. The 33rd , Venice, Italy. Image courtesy the artist, Yayoi Kusama Studio, Victoria Miro Gallery, London and Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo © Yayoi Kusama, Yayoi Kusama Studio.

This Education Resource Kit has been written by City Gallery The images presented within this resource kit are for educational use only, Educators Helen Lloyd, Miri Young and Amanda Hereaka. and should not be reproduced or published without permission of City Gallery Wellington. It is designed to support teachers bringing students to visit the exhibition Yayoi Kusama: Mirrored Years at City © The City Gallery Wellington 2009, the artist, authors and photographers. Gallery Wellington. The kit provides additional information about the exhibition and suggested activities to use in the Published by the City Gallery Wellington. All rights reserved. The publisher grants permission for this education kit to be reproduced only for education classroom with students before and after a Gallery visit. It is purposes and strictly in relation to the exhibition Yayoi Kusama: Mirrored intended to complement the exhibition brochure, exhibition Years. All artworks are copyright and used with permission. publication and City Gallery Education Programmes. Further information about the artist is available on the Yayoi Kusama: Mirrored Years is a partnership between Museum Boijmanns van Beuningen, , Museum of , Gallery website, in the Gallery reading room, and in the Sydney and City Gallery Wellington. It is curated by Jaap Guldemond recommended reading list at the end of this kit. (Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen), Franck Gautherot, Kim Seungduk (Le Consortium, Dijon), with additional works selected for Australasia by Judith The Te Ao Māori section of this kit outlines some of the Blackall, Director of Artistic Programmes, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney and Paula Savage Director, City Gallery Wellington. Māori concepts related to the Education Programme for Yayoi Kusama: Mirrored Years. The Māori artist comparison Catalogue details: is designed for students to use in the research of artist Yayio Kusama: Mirrored Years models, and to extend cross-cultural learning. 304 pages. 175x235mm Essays by Midori Yamamura, Diedrich Diederichsen, Franck Gautherot and Kim Seungduk, and an interview between Franck Gautherot and Lily van Before booking a visit, teachers are advised to contact a der Stoker. member of the Education Team to discuss your specific curriculum focus. All Gallery based programmes can be tailored to meet the specific learning and timetabling needs of each group.

Please note: Teachers are advised that the exhibition includes two video artworks which contain some nudity. We recommend that teachers view the exhibition before bringing students if you are concerned. These videos are not part of the Education Programme. Exhibition introduction Artist profile Yayoi Kusama: Mirrored Years Yayoi Kusama

‘I Kusama am the Modern Alice in Wonderland.’ Yayoi Kusama

‘When we obliterate nature and our bodies with polka dots, we become part of the unity of our environment, I become part of the eternal, and we obliterate ourselves in love.’ Yayoi Kusama

The exhibition Yayoi Kusama: Mirrored Years offers visitors ‘the Kusama Experience’—an immersion in a range of strange, evocative environments, with a focus on mirroring, reflection and repetitive patterns. It covers the range of Kusama’s artistic production—from wall- mounted assemblages and paintings to room-sized mirrored installations, which offer the viewer an experience of endlessness, and infinity.

Kusama describes herself as an ‘obsessive artist’; her work reveals a fixation with repetition, pattern and accumulation. Portrait Yayoi Kusama. Image courtesy the artist, Yayoi Kusama Studio, In addition to holding an integral and complex role in Victoria Miro Gallery, London and Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo © Yayoi Kusama, art history, Kusama has been highly influential to a new Yayoi Kusama Studio. generation of artists and designers. Her unique perception, •Yayoi Kusama was born in 1929, in Matsumoto, Nagano originality and uncompromising vision have ‘helped Prefecture in Japan position her as one of the most acclaimed and respected contemporary artists working today’ (Judith Blackall, MCA •In Japan Kusama studied ‘Nihonga’ painting, a formal Education Kit, 2009). Japanese technique using ground pigment and animal glues Kusama’s installations offer students an exciting other- •Kusama left Japan when she was 27 (1958) and moved worldly sensory experience. Students become fully to where she established her reputation as a immersed in the physical engagement of Kusama’s leader in the avant-garde art world installations which explore space, light, texture, pattern, colour and scale. This experience allows students to be •In New York she organised ‘’ and performance acutely aware of the responses they have, often their own art pieces image is relfected back, so that they literally become part of the artwork they are viewing. •She has exhibited work with , , and (major artists in the Pop of the 1960s)

•She returned to Japan because of health reasons in 1973, and now lives in Tokyo

•Kusama has twice represented Japan at the Venice Biennale, in 1966 and 1993

•In 2006, Kusama became the first Japanese woman to receive the ‘’, one of Japan’s most prestigious prizes for internationally recognised artists

•Kusama turned 80 in March, 2009. She has struggled with mental illness throughout her life, often experiencing Yayoi Kusama, Invisible Life 2001. Convex mirrors. Courtesy the artist, hallucinations and anxiety, and currently chooses to live in a Yayoi Kusama Studio, Victoria Miro Gallery, London and Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo © Yayoi Kusama, Yayoi Kusama Studio. mental hospital. Kusama continues to play a prominent role in the international art world.

•In November 2008, Christies New York sold a work by her for $5,100,000, a record for a living female artist.

 Artist’s statement My message to the world: ‘Love Forever’

When I was about ten years old, I began painting pictures and making sculpture-like objects by lining up small pebbles from a river behind my parents’ house on the dried river bed. These are the origins of the forms that I have been creating throughout my life ever since I can remember, giving it my all. I have been treading a long path of my forever-shining life seeking the truth, evolving continually. All my life I have had aspirations for world peace and love, with a deep and passionate ‘hymn of praise to humanity’.

During this process, I always envision the continual and repetitive appearances and disappearances of beauty- generating hallucinations that well up in my mind. I named this phenomenon ‘stereotypical repetition’.

During the days of my never-ending life of hard work, I developed a ‘psychosomatic syndrome’ as a result of painting too many pictures. I have translated this into my work through a large number of diverse themes that include: ‘Prisoner Behind a Curtain of Depersonalisation’, Yayoi Kusama, GOING OUT INTO THE FIELD 2006, from the series Love ‘Sex, Food Obsession’, ‘Aggregated Earth’, ‘Infinite Space Forever 2004-7. Silk screen on canvas. Courtesy the artist, Yayoi Kusama of the Universe’, ‘Psychosomatic Art’, ‘Longing for the Studio, Victoria Miro Gallery, London and Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo © Yayoi Universe’, ‘Driving Image’, ‘Cellular Thinking’, ‘Death of Kusama, Yayoi Kusama Studio. Vacuum’, ‘Are There Ends in the Universe?’ among others.

From now until the last day of my life, I will keep developing my creative process and my artistic philosophy while maintaining an artistic position on everything.

I may be physically getting older, but I am ever so enthusiastic now about creating art work. My consistent avant-garde approach to art, I think, has exerted a great influence on the art work of American and European artists, as well as other artists, especially Lucas Samaras’ Mirror Room, Claes Oldenburg’s Soft Sculpture and Andy Warhol’s Stereotypical Repetition: Cow Wallpaper, in which cow heads are repeatedly shown on posters all over the walls. These are the historically famous titles Kusama invented. I have been involved in Pop art, Minimal art, Happenings, Environments, Avant-garde films and others, as well as in Zero in Europe, while pursuing and realising my philosophy of art.

My ever inexhaustible energies will continue to evolve as long as I live beyond the limit of my body. The incredible beauty of humanity for which I say ‘Love Forever’. I have been struggling throughout my life with this everlasting message.

I believe my aspirations will not fade away after I am gone and I want to leave it to those interested in my art as a message from Yayoi Kusama – an eternal wish for ‘peace’ and the renunciation of war based on ‘humanity’.

Yayoi Kusama – February 2009

 Exhibition themes Kusama has developed artwork across a broad range of which the viewer feels immersed, overwhelmed and obliter- media, and throughout her career she has continued to ated by the scale of these giant amorphous forms. explore and re-examine particular subjects, themes and ideas. These include altered perception and optical illusion, immersive environments, physicality and scale, repetitive pattern and obsessive art-making processes. Her work also examines aspects of her own identity, a projection of particular personas and the notion of self-obliteration.

Altered perception and optical illusion Much of Kusama’s work explores a longstanding interest in altered perception and optical illusion. Many of Kusama’s installations demonstrate her fascination with the notions of infinity and self obliteration. Her dizzying use of fluorescent polka dots on every surface of the installation I’m Here, but Nothing (2000) alters the viewer’s perception of depth and space, the walls, ceiling and floor appear to Yayoi Kusama The Earth in Late Summer 2004. Styrol, wood, cloth, paint. become destabilised, and the objects within the room seem Courtesy the National , Tokyo, the artist, Victoria to float in space. While experiencing this installation, the Miro Gallery, London and Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo © Yayoi Kusama, Yayoi boundaries of objects blur and our usual anchors for Kusama Studio. sensing depth, space and perspective are unsettled. Repetitive pattern and obsessive art-making processes Immersive environments, physicality and scale Kusama is a self professed ‘obsessive’ artist often Since the early 1960’s Kusama has been making employing an obsessive, repetitive art-making process. immersive environments that engage us with our own Much of her work demonstrates a fascination with repetitive perception, physicality and scale. Infinity Mirror Room- pattern. Early in Kusama’s career, she began covering Phalli’s Field (1965) is the artist’s first all-enveloping, surfaces (walls, floors, canvases, and later, household mirrored environment. Inside this room the viewer stands objects and people) with the polka dots that subsequently mirrored to infinity in a dizzying, disconcerting and were to become a trademark of her work. She refers to the hallucinatory spatial experience. Viewing this artwork, we dots as ‘Infinity Nets’ which may be inspired by her lose our sense of beginning and end, and succumb to occasional altered perception and hallucinatory Kusama’s spell of overwhelming repetition. experiences. The process of making her ‘Infinity Net’ paintings involves painting thousands of repeated miniature brush marks over large expanses of canvas. This experience of painting is intensely repetitive and holds the potential to evoke a meditative state of mind.

Identity, persona, and self-obliteration Through her performances, captured and presented on DVD, Kusama examines aspects of her own identity, critiquing gender and racial stereotypes. She experiments with the manipulation of her own image, and projects various personal personas through her performances and publicity photographs. The idea of self-obliteration is recurrent in her work and appears in many of her performances. By covering herself and her surroundings with dots, Kusama blurs the boundaries between self and environment, or self and other, while providing the viewer with an insight into her unique ‘hallucinatory’ experiences of altered perception.

Yayoi Kusama, Clouds 1999. Vinyl balloons. Courtesy the artist, Victoria Miro Gallery, London and Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo © Yayoi Kusama, Yayoi Kusama Studio. Physicality and scale are explored by Kusama in her recent sculptural installation Clouds (2008). This work comprises twenty large-scale inflated forms, a development on her soft sculpture and earlier installations which featured brightly coloured inflated balloons with polka dots. Clouds creates an illusion of other-worldliness, of infinite dark space, within  EDUCATION PROGRAMME Yayoi Kusama, Im Here, but Nothing 2001. Dot sheet, ultra violet fluorescent light, furniture, household objects. Courtesy the artist, Yayoi Kusama Studio, Victoria Miro Gallery, London and Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo © Yayoi Kusama, Yayoi Kusama Studio. Photo: Ezko Hosoe. Education Programme and Curriculum/NCEA links

Yayoi Kusama: Mirrored Years Gallery Programme: 1 hour Explore and discuss the Yayoi Kusama: Mirrored Years exhibition taking part in Gallery based activities that examine major themes and ideas in Kusama’s work.

Key competencies: Thinking, Using language and symbols, Managing self, Relating to others, and Participating and contributing.

Curriculum strands: Visual Arts/Toi ataata: Understanding the Arts in Context, Communicating and Interpreting.

Yayoi Kusama, 1939. Pencil on paper. Courtesy the artist, Yayoi Kusama Studio, Victoria Miro Gallery, London and Ota Fine Arts Tokyo © Yayoi Kusama, Yayoi Kusama Studio. NCEA Visual art/Toi ataata: Level 2: Research information, methods and ideas in the context of a drawing study. Yayoi Kusama, Infinity Mirrored Room (Fireflies on the Water) 2000. Light bulbs, water, mirror room. Collection: FNAC, France. Image courtesy the Level 3: Research and analyse approaches within artist, Victoria Miro Gallery, London and Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo © Yayoi Kusama, Yayoi Kusama Studio. established practice.

Programme content Art History: Students will: Level 2: Discuss artworks. Examine subjects and themes •Engage in an introduction to the main exhibition including in art. Examine techniques used in art. Examine an art information about the artist, art style, exhibition content, movement. Research an art history topic. Examine artworks artwork themes, art making techniques and exhibition and their environmental contexts. context. Level 3: Analyse style in art. Examine media and process in •Respond to what they see, articulating their own ideas, art. Examine a theory and its role in art. Investigate an art thoughts, feelings, and interpretations of the artworks, issue. Examine the context of an art movement. feeding into ideas about their own art development. Achievement objectives Visual Arts/Toi ataata: •Pose questions about the artworks to further their own Level 5-6: Investigate and analyse the relationship between and each others ideas and understandings about what the production of artworks and the contexts in which they they represent, what feelings they evoke and their possible are made, viewed and valued. Investigate, analyse, and meanings. Respond to questions prompted by the Gallery evaluate ideas and interpret artists’ intentions in artworks. Educator about the artworks, value, purpose, and context, and the artist’s intentions, ideas, and practices. Level 7-8: Use research and analysis to investigate contexts, meanings, intentions, and technological influences related •Participate in hands-on group and/or individual activities to the making and valuing of artworks. Research and in the Gallery designed to facilitate enquiry learning, focus analyse how artworks are constructed and presented to careful looking /investigation, explore ideas and responses, communicate meanings. Use critical analysis to interpret, and develop visual literacy while meeting the needs of respond to and evaluate artworks. different learning styles.

 Pre and post visit activity suggestions Pre visit activity suggestions For example, go to: www.frieze.com/issue/review/yayoi_ • Visit Yayoi Kusama’s official web site kusama/ and Skilbeck, Ruth. ‘Infinity Nets and Polka Dots’, http://www.yayoi-kusama.jp/ Australian Art Collector Magazine, Issue 47 Jan-March 2009. • Read this interview between Yayoi Kusama and Robert Murdock ,1966, New York In small groups discuss: how have audience and critical http://collections.walkerart.org/item/archive/14 responses to Kusama’s work changed over time? What factors may have affected these changes? • Play the fun interactive online game inspired by Kusama’s artwork • Choose one aspect of Kusama’s practice to examine, see http://qag.qld.gov.au/kids/activities/online_interactives/ Exhibition themes on page 6 for some ideas: kusamas_world_of_dots2/interactive - Altered perception and optical illusion - Immersive environments and physicality and scale • Look at a slide show of a selection of Kusama’s artworks - Repetitive pattern and obsessive art-making processes http://www.victoriamiro.com/artists/_31/ - Identity, persona, and self-obliteration Develop a body of work of your own by experimenting with • Look at the Secondary school student’s artwork analysis one of these aspects of Kusama’s practice, but take the (on page 23) in this Education Resource Kit and as a group, ideas in a new direction. take turns to ask the questions, and discuss them together. Read out the information points about the artwork. Can For example: altered perception - devise artworks that can you think of any other questions you could ask about this be ‘seen through’, and act like viewfinders, but also alter artwork? the viewer’s perception in some way. For physicality and scale you might like to use photo montage or Photoshop to create designs for gigantic sculptures which impact on the viewer’s sense of scale. Experiment with obsessive art-making processes by taking a series of small actions such as dropping ink, or scratching paint, or tearing paper, and repeat these actions over and over on a large scale. Experiment with different actions and different materials.

Describe the experience of making art in this obsessive way – how does it make you feel? How is it different to other ways or making artwork? What are the pros and cons of this type of practice? Make notes about your experiments and experiences in your sketchbook.

• Choose your favorite artwork from the exhibition for analysis. What information do you know about the artwork? What else would you like to know about it? Can you find out any other information about it (at the library or on the Yayoi Kusama, Narcissus Garden 1966. Installation view, The 33rd Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy. Image courtesy the artist, Yayoi Kusama Studio, Internet)? What do you think and feel about it? What do you Victoria Miro Gallery, London and Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo © Yayoi Kusama, think Kusama’s was for this artwork? What were Yayoi Kusama Studio. her intentions for how it would make viewers feel? Describe Post visit activity suggestions the techniques and processes she has used to make this • Choose one or two artists from our suggestions on page artwork. 13, or the Māori artists (pages 16 and 17) and discuss with a partner what the similarities and differences are between their work and Kusama’s work.

Consider: style, working processes, ideas, techniques, subject matter, historical and cultural contexts within which the work was made, audience responses to the work, artist intentions, and your own feelings about the work. Make notes from your conversation in your sketchbook.

• Read some exhibition reviews of Kusama’s work. Make your own google search for reviews or see http:// peterblumgallery.com/artists/yayoi-kusama/press and contrast them with current reviews of Yayoi Kusama: Mirrored Years exhibition, which has shown at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen Rotterdam, MCA in Sydney, and is at City Gallery Wellington.  CONTEXTS, CONCEPTS & PROCESSES Yayoi Kusama, Narcissus Garden 1966. Installation view, XXIII Venice Biennale. Image courtesy the artist, Yayoi Kusama Studio, Victoria Miro Gallery, London and Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo © Yayoi Kusama, Yayoi Kusama Studio. 10 Timeline

Reproduced from MCA Sydney, ‘Yayoi Kusama: Mirrored Years Education Kit’ 2009, written by Kate Scarfield.

YAYOI KUSAMA 1929: Born in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. 1939: Remembers having first series of visions and hallucinations (Age 10). Produced the drawing Untitled (Mother). 1942-48: Training and practice in traditional Nihonga painting. 1948-51: Studied at the Arts and Crafts School, Kyoto Japan.

1955: Written correspondence with American artist Georgia Yayoi Kusama in New York c. 1968. Image courtesy the artist, Yayoi O’Keefe. Kusama Studio, Victoria Miro Gallery, London and Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo © Yayoi Kusama, Yayoi Kusama Studio. 1957: Moved to United States to live and work, arriving first in . ARTWORLD & WORLD 1957-58: Arrived in New York and began studying at the Art 1924: founded by Andre Breton in Paris, France. Students League. 1930: The Great Depression. 1959: First exhibition of Infinity Net paintings at Brata 1939: World War II Begins. Gallery, New York. 1941: Japanese bomb Pearl Harbour, Hawaii. 1962: Exhibits Accumulation soft sculptures at Green 1945: Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Gallery’s group show, New York. Is the only female to take World War II ends. part in thewidely acclaimed Nul (Zero) exhibition at the c.1946: Abstract Expressionist movement begins in New Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. York, United States. 1963: Aggregation: One Thousand Boats Show at Gertrude c.1950: Pop Art movement gains strength in United States. Stein Gallery, New York. 1956: Videotape invented. 1964: Driving Image Show. First environment exhibited at Castellane Gallery, New York. 1962: Andy Warhol presents silkscreen One Dollar Bill works at ’s group show, New York. 1965: Infinity Mirror Room (Phalli’s Field). Begins first series of performances. (Sept) 1962: Claes Oldenburg exhibits first series of soft sculptures at Green Gallery, New York. 1966: Presents Narcissus Garden at the 33rd Venice Biennale. c.1962: Minimalism resurfaces as a movement in reaction to Abstract Expressionism. c.1966: Walking Piece 1965: begins. 1967-69: Stages Happenings and performances across New York. 1966: Mirror Room by Lucas Samaras. 1973: Returns to Japan. c.1966: Women’s Liberation movement begins. 1977: Takes residence in Seiwa Hospital, Tokyo Japan. 1969: First man on the moon. 1989: Began publishing collected poems and literary works. 1970: The Female Eunuch by Germaine Greer published. 1993: Selected to represent Japan at the Venice Biennale. 1973: Vietnam war ends. Presents Infinity Mirror Room (Pumpkin). 1981: AIDS first identified. 2000: Yayoi Kusama retrospective exhibition at the 1989: Tianamen Square Massacre, China. Berlin wall come Serpentine Gallery, London. down, Germany. 2001-2: Yayoi Kusama exhibition at Le Consortium, Dijon, 1993: Marcel Duchamp retrospective exhibition, Venice. France. Toured to Denmark and Korea. 1997: Beginning of Asian economic crisis. The controversial 2004-07: Love Forever series. Sensation exhibition is shown at the Royal Academy of Art, London. Tours to Berlin and New York.

11 Artist’s techiques and processes The artwork in the exhibition Yayoi Kusama: Mirrored Years In 1962 Kusama made her first sculptural objects: an arm- covers a wide range of media, techniques and processes and a couch covered in a profusion of stitched, stuffed including installation, silk screen printing, sculpture/soft fabric protuberances, titled Accumulations. Her early soft- sculpture, painting, and videos of performances. Kusama sculptures were exhibited in September 1962 at Green began her career as a painter, and studied traditional forms Gallery New York, in a group show which included early of painting as a student in Japan. After moving to New York works by Andy Warhol and Claes Oldenburg. Since then she began to broaden her practice, experimenting with Kusama has completed many large scale permanent public sculpture, soft sculpture, performance and installation artworks around the world, including representing Japan at work. Now living back in Japan she continues to make large the Venice Biennale in 1993 with an accumulation of silver scale sculptures and installations but has also recently spheres Narcissus Garden. She is continually exploring the produced an extensive series of silk screen prints. sculptural possibilities of inflatable forms, evidenced in her recent piece Clouds (2008). Kusama began making three dimensional installations around 1963, and these were some of the earliest The earliest works in the exhibition, Kusama’s ‘Infinity Net’ examples of ever produced. A recent paintings are depictions of patterns in nature such as the installation I’m Here, but Nothing (2000, recreated 2009) minute structures found in leaves, coral or butterfly wings. has been recreated at City Gallery Wellington. Kusama Kusama obsessively covers the entire canvas with small asked the Gallery to build a simply furnished family living repetitive painted loops, creating the appearance of a room. She gave instructions that every surface should be monochromatic net. The ‘Infinity Net’ paintings offer viewers covered with polka dots glowing under ultra-violet light. The a disorientating almost dizzying experience, when looking at visitor’s experience in this room is evocative of Kusama’s them from a distance. In 1961, a couple of years after she childhood hallucinations where her perception of the world arrived in New York, Kusama exhibited a white net painting was momentarily obliterated by polka dots. that was almost three metres high and ten metres long. Paintings on this scale transform the spaces they occupy and represent an early form of installation art.

Yayoi Kusama, Walking Piece 1966. Set of 24 colour slides. Courtesy the artist, Yayoi Kusama Studio, Victoria Miro Gallery, London and Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo © Yayoi Kusama, Yayoi Kusama Studio. Photo: Ezko Hosoe. While working in New York Kusama orchestrated and appeared in many performances. Yayoi Kusama: Mirrored Years includes seven video works. Walking Piece (1966) sees the artist walking through the streets of New York wearing traditional Japanese dress. This performance draws attention to issues of race, gender and identity and was documented by twenty-four colour slides which have been transferred to DVD. In this work Kusama manipulates her Yayoi Kusama in her studio, 2007. Image courtesy the artist, Yayoi Kusama Studio, Victoria Miro Gallery, London and Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo © Yayoi identity and questions other people’s perceptions of her. Kusama, Yayoi Kusama Studio. Photo: Ezko Hosoe. Through her performance works Kusama’s identity The most recent works in the exhibition, Kusama’s suite becomes central to her practice, and is a theme which of 50 new works on canvas Love Forever (2004-2007) are carries through much of her subsequent artwork. silkscreen prints which have taken three years to complete. The monochromatic prints feature a myriad of mesmerising and sweeping lines, delicate forms, figurative and organic shapes, whorls, lips and eyes, cats, trees and polka dots. The artist creates these by initially drawing on the canvas with a marker pen. The works are then transferred to silkscreen to be printed. 12 Art historical context - related genres Kusama’s work is difficult to define in relation to any particular genre of art. It is more organic than other Minimalist Art, more abstract than Pop Art, and more psychologically affecting than most Op Art. It pre-figures Feminism but has much to contribute to it, and Kusama’s early ‘Infinity Net’ paintings have an Abstract Expressionist quality. Kusama’s work can be understood to combine elements from all these genres, effectively escaping any strict genre definitions. The following list of art genres can be studied in relation to aspects of Kusama’s work.

Minimalism Kusama’s early ‘Infinity Net’ paintings explored a Minimalist notion of painting akin to many artists who were developing work in America in the 1960’s and 70’s that explored the Yayoi Kusama, Infinity-Nets (OQABT) 2007. Acrylic on canvas. ways in which art can be pared down to its most Courtesy the artist, Yayoi Kusama Studio, Victoria Miro Gallery, London and fundamental features. Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo © Yayoi Kusama, Yayoi Kusama Studio.

Other artists to study: (b. 1928 d. 1994), and Abstract Expressionism (b. 1936- ). Kusama’s ‘Infinity Net’ paintings were being produced and New Zealand artists: (b. 1925- ) and Julian exhibited in New York at a time when Abstract Expressionist Dashper (b. 1960- ). art was the dominant force in the western avant-garde art scene. Kusama’s paintings, while abstracted in form also Op Art imply an expression of ideas concerning the spiritual, or Optical illusion and altered perception are examined by alerted states of conscious. Kusama throughout many of her paintings and installations. Kusama shares a fascination with Op artists who use Other artists to study: Mark Tobey (b. 1890 d. 1976) and certain types of patterns to create a discordant (b.1912 d.1956). figure-ground relationship. This relationship plays on the New Zealand artists: Max Gimblett (b. 1935- ) and Allen way vision functions to produce an unsettling perceptual Maddox (b. 1948 d. 2000). experience for the viewer. Feminism Other artists to study: Victor Vasarely (b.1908 d.1997) and Issues of gender and sexuality began to appear in Kusama’s Bridget Riley (b.1931- ). work during the 1960’s, pre-dating many artists considered New Zealand artists: Gordon Walters (b.1919 d. 1995) and to be part of the movement which flourished Sara Hughes (b. 1971- ). in the 1970’s in America. Kusama’s soft sculptures of the 1960’s which employ multiple phallic shapes and her naked Pop Art performances exploring sexuality, encourage a feminist In 1960 Kusama started experimenting with mixed media, reading of her practice. collaging airmail stickers, labels, dollar bills and postage stamps in repeat patterns. This is evident in her installation Other artist to study: Judy Chicago (b. 1939- ), Lynda Benglis Walking on the Sea of Death (1981) a room covered with (b. 1941) and Miriam Schapiro (b. 1923- ) 999 repeated images of a boat sculpture, first exhibited in New Zealand artists: Vivian Lynn (b. 1931- ) and Jacqueline New York at Gertrude Stein Gallery in 1963. A contemporary Fahey (b.1930- ). and friend of Kusama, Andy Warhol was also experimenting with the repetitive use of images at this time, evidenced in Performance Art his Cow Wallpaper installation (1966) at Castelli Gallery in Both Kusama and participated in New York. ‘Happenings’, which were originated by Alan Kaprow in the 1960’s (who is famous for having coined the term). Kusama Other artists to study: Jasper Johns (b. 1930- ) and Roy performed in and directed many of her own performances Lichtenstein (b.1923 d. 1997). and Happenings in New York during the 1960’s. New Zealand artists: Billy Apple (b. Barry Bates in 1935, became Billy Apple in 1962- ) and Dick Frizzell (b. 1943- ). Other artists to study: (b. 1928 d. 1962), and (b. 1933- ). New Zealand artists: Jim Allen (b. 1922- ), Amy Howden Chapman (b. 1984- ) and Kah Bee Chow (b. 1980- ).

13 EXTENSION ACTIVITIES Yayoi Kusama, The Earth in Late Summer 2004. Styrol, wood, cloth, paint. Courtesy the artist, Victoria Miro Gallery,London amd Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo © Yayoi Kusama, Yayoi Kusama Studio. 14 Te Ao Māori: Mātauranga Māori concepts This section relates aspects of Kusama’s work with Te Ao Kowhaiwhai Māori, focusing on Kusama’s use of repetition, pattern and Kowhaiwhai painting is generally associated with heke accumulation and her exploration of other-worldliness and (rafters) of whare whakairo (carved ancestral house). The physical examination of space. Linking these three themes kowhaiwhai painted heke provides connections between all within Māoridom is the koru: a symbol of eternity/ parts of the wharenui and helps give structure and infinity, it spans light and dark (our world/other-worldliness, coherence to the design. Kowhaiwhai design are made normal/sacred), its unfurling curl representing the past, from combinations, repetitions, reflections and rotations of and future. The use of koru in kowhawhai painting a basic design element, typically the form of a koru, along within the wharenui (meeting house) sees it repeated and a central unbroken line: the manawa. The curving manawa accumulated to represent real forms in nature as well as line, in some designs absent or implicit, is ‘the heart pulse figuratively representing whakapapa (geneology). This leads of the pattern’ representing the indivisibility of the past, us to examine the role of kowhaiwhai within the structure of present and future. Kowhaiwhai designs allude to patterns the wharenui and to consider the design of the wharenui as found in nature and symbolise growth, as well as give ex- a physical representation of the human form. pression to whakapapa. (Helen Kedgley, ‘The Koru and Kowhaiwhai: The Contemporary The world of light and darkness of kowhaiwhai painting’, Pataka, 2002) As the sun rises each morning and sets each evening, the Symbolism of the meeting house world follows a daily cycle of light (Te Ao) and darkness (Te Pō). Māori creation stories emphasise this movement The wharenui (meeting house) is the focal point of a marae. from nothingness and darkness to the world of light: Te Ao It has great spiritual significance, embodying its people’s Mārama. It is said that the world itself is created each past and its shape representing the human form. Often morning with the rise of the sun. it bears the name of a famous ancestor. Each part of a wharenui is a representation. At the apex of the gable, Te Kore – a world beyond attached to the tahuhu or ridgepole is the koruru (head). It is traditional Māori belief that there is something beyond The maihi (bargeboards) are the arms, outstretched to the world of everyday experience: we do not live in a closed welcome guests. The tahuhu is the backbone, the heke system where what we see is all there is. This other world are ribs. The porch is termed the roro (brain). The kuwaha or dimension is known as Te Kore, the ‘void’, in most tribal (mouth) or door is the symbolic entry where the physical traditions. and spiritual realms come together. The window becomes the matapihi (eye) and the interior the koopu (womb). Cleve Barlow has suggested that Te Kore means chaos, a state which has always existed and which contains The poupou (carved posts) depict notable descendents of ‘unlimited potential for being’. Māori Marsden, a Tai the famous ancestor. The poutokomanawa (central support Tokerau elder and Anglican minister, had a similar belief. He pillars), which are carved naturalistically, hold the heart or said that Te Korekore (a variant of Te Kore) was ‘the realm mana of the tribe. (‘Tane-Nui-A-Rangi’, , 1988) between non-being and being: that is the realm of potential being’. Some believe that Te Kore is where the ultimate reality can be found. Others think that it is where Io, the Supreme Being, dwells. The idea of Te Kore is central to notions of mana (status), tapu (sacred and restricted customs) and mauri (life force). (Te Ahukaramū Charles Royal. ‘Te Ao Mārama – the natural world’, Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated 21-Sep-2007, http://www. TeAra.govt.nz/TheBush/UnderstandingTheNaturalWorld/TeAoMaramaTh- eNaturalWorld/en)

Te Koru The koru symbolises an unfurling fern leaf. The fern was important as a food and medicine to Māori, as such it was a common motif in Māori design. The koru is often used to represent creation. Its circular shape conveys the idea of perpetual movement, and its inward coil suggests a return to the point of origin. The koru therefore symbolises the way in which life both changes and stays the same. The koru is a symbol for our national identity. It is used for commercial logos, such as Air New Zealand, and the silver fern is an integral part of our national sporting teams’ uniforms (All Blacks, Silver Ferns) and adorns our unofficial national flag. (Te Ahukaramū Charles Royal. ‘Te Ao Mārama – the natural world’, Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated 21-Sep-2007. http://www. TeAra.govt.nz/TheBush/UnderstandingTheNaturalWorld/TeAoMaramaTh- eNaturalWorld/en)

15 Māori artist comparisons: Reuben Paterson In 1997 Paterson graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Reuben Paterson, Ngati Rangitihi from Elam School of Fine Arts at University of Auckland. He was the youngest recipient and the second Māori to receive the Moet et Chandon Fellowship to Avize, France 1997. In 2005 he won the Development Prize in the Wallace Art Awards — the prize a three-month residency with the International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) in New York valued at $15,000.

Paterson has been exhibiting since 1995 and more recently has had numerous prestigious public exhibitions: in 2000 he was represented at the 8th Festival of Pacific Arts Biennale d’Art Contemporian, Noumea, New Caledonia. In 2001 his work was shown at Te Tuhi, Auckland; Te Wa-the space, Wanganui; Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki; City Gallery Wellington, Te Whare Toi; and Pataka, Porirua. In July 2002 he exhibited at Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa Tongarewa, and in 2005 he was selected to exhibit in the International Biennale of Contemporary Art at the National Gallery in Prague.

http://www.milfordgalleries.co.n http://www.reubenpaterson.com http://www.gowlangsfordgallery.co.nz/artists/reubenpaterson/ Reuben Paterson, Admiral Tangaroa 2002. Glitter on canvas. Image cour- Liketesy the Kusama’s artist. brightly coloured, soft sculptural forms or her colourful net paintings, at first glance Reuben Paterson’s glitter paintings of kowhaiwhai are bright, sparkly, fun, tactile and sensuous.

However, on closer examination we find a darker subtext to both artists’ work.

Paterson’s glitter paintings are extremely seductive, attracting viewers like magpies to shiny objects of promise. They hint at the ideas of beauty as a magnet for visual attraction. The artist is exploring more than the twinkling light qualities of the sparkling glitter; its intrinsic character transcends the everyday, the mundane or the worldly, and now implies the celestial, the spiritual and the celebratory. (Rhoda Fowler, “The Wharenui that Dad Built,” Te Tuhi, 2001)

Patersons’s decorative traditional kowhaiwhai designs in glitter dust suggest ‘the assured defiance of Māori culture in the face of loss…’, but they also ‘…emit an air of Reuben Paterson, Do you know any Māori Jokes? 2002. Glitter on canvas. melancholy’. Image courtesy the artist. (David Broker, Eyeline magazine concerning Biennale Noumea, 2000)

Paterson continues the contemporary tradition of resuscitating and updating customary Māori motifs by the use of non-traditional media that can be seen in the work of artists such as , and Buck Nin.

His work extends the customary Māori use of design and pattern, of weaving and layering. It may resemble glittering piupiu, fishing nets, a swatch of fabric, or a detail from an haute-couture creation. Paterson explains fashion is a strong influence, ‘it is an art form that combines aspects of decorative art and industrial design and a definite part of popular culture that permeates our social history. It is a symbolic system, a protective clothing form and a kind of performance art’. (Artist statement, 1997) 16 Māori artist comparisons: Shona Rapira Davies Shona Rapira Davies, Ngati Wai, Nga Puhi

Kusama’s work Walking Piece (1966) draws parallels with Shona Rapira Davies’ work, which often highlights aspects of identity (cultural, gender and race) examining political issues from a Feminist perspective. Rapira Davies’ work, Te Waimaphihi (1992, Te Aro Park, also known as pigeon park) is a large, immersive work and represents a waka and like Kusama’s environment plays with scale and perspective.

Shona Rapira Davies graduated with a Diploma of Fine Art from Otago Polytechnic in 1983 and was the Frances Hodgkins Fellow at the in 1989.

Shona Rapira Davies, Te Waimapihi 1992 (Te Aro Park)

Te Waimapihi From 1988 to 1992 Shona designed and completed Te Waimapihi (Te Aro Park) in Wellington, a major ceramic tile permanent work and considered one of New Zealand’s most successful public sculptures. The work is a simple and striking visual design, yet it contains layers of significance Shona Rapira Davies, Te Waimapihi 1992 (Te Aro Park) and meaning. Through Te Waimapihi Rapira Davies begins to expose the history of the Whanganui a Tara region, and Shona first exhibited Nga Morehu (The Survivors) at the acknowledges the Māori dimension of the city. Te Waimapihi Wellington City Art Gallery in 1988. Nga Morehu was cannot be appreciated fully from the ground, but the overall purchased in 1992 by the National Art Gallery (now effect to be seen from atop neighbouring buildings. Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington). In March 1992 Nga Morehu was included in Headlands: ‘Rapira Davies’ work in Te Aro Park testifies to her ability, Thinking through New Zealand Art at the Museum of like that of our tupuna (ancestors), to survive. Her park Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia, in collaboration with carries messages of war and messages of peace, as the National Art Gallery, New Zealand. Other series by does Rapira Davies herself and our iwi. It is located in the Shona include ‘Drawings for the cicada tree’; ‘Not exactly of Māori art, part of the past, here in the present a Māori work of art’; ‘Palisades’, and ‘Teaching aids for and a Taonga for the future’ Kahurangi and Immigrant’. She featured in ‘Prospect’ 2004 (Rangihiroa Pa Noho, ‘Shona Rapira Davies: catalogue’, Bowen Galleries, at City Gallery Wellington and exhibits in public and dealer 1994.) galleries throughout New Zealand.

Shona Rapira Davies is interested in creating a discourse around Māori political issues from a Feminist perspective. Her sculptures, usually life sized clay models, are the physical manifestation of her culture’s pain. Her use of clay references the land.

17 Visual art project ideas Kusama makes fun experiential artworks. Try making some costumes and add some face/body paints/wigs to of your own Kusama inspired artworks: complete the look. Perform a fashion parade and take photos of everyone wearing the costumes. Set up a catwalk to perform on which is also inspired by Kusama. Invite other students to watch you and film the fashion parade performance. Choose some music to accompany the parade. Do the costumes and catwalk make you want to move in certain ways? Experiment with different types of poses or movements while dressed up, and document them through film, photography or drawings.

Yayoi Kusama, Im Here, but Nothing 2001. Dot sheet, ultra violet fluores- cent light, furniture, household hobjects. Courtesy the artist, Yayoi Kusama Studio, Victoria Miro Gallery, London and Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo © Yayoi Kusama, Yayoi Kusama Studio. Photo: Ezko Hosoe. ‘Kusama’ your classroom Inspiration: I’m Here, but Nothing, 2000 Kusama likes to create environments where people can feel lost or disorientated. To make your own, use fluorescent sticky dots to cover all the objects in your Yayoi Kusama, Soaring Spirit 2008. Mirror balls, metal wire. Courtesy classroom, including the walls floors and ceiling. Black out the artist, Victoria Miro Gallery, London and Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo© Yayoi Kusama, Yayoi Kusama Studio. the light with blinds/curtains and switch on a fluorescent light. Explore your transformed room. Take some pictures Suspended sculptures of the room. Put some fluorescent dots on yourself and Inspiration: Soaring Spirit, 2008 become part of the environment. Film yourself in the space. Kusama is interested in the ways in which sculptures take Invite students from another class to experience your up space, and sculptures which give the illusion of hanging ‘Kusama’ room. Ask them how it felt. Write a description of in space. Design and make your own hanging sculptures. the feeling of exploring the dotty space. When you have Use different size balls – table tennis balls, tennis balls, removed the dots and turned your classroom back to footballs, beach balls etc, and make casts of them by wrap- normal, draw a picture from memory of what it looked like ping them up in layers of cellotape or masking tape. (Make when it was covered in fluorescent dots in the dark. sure the first layer has the sticky side of the tape facing you, not the ball otherwise it will not come off when you want it to. Stick the final layer of the tape with the sticky side down, otherwise it will stick to everything!). You will need to apply at least three layers of tape to make the cast of the ball firm enough. Cut the tape layered cast away from the ball using a sharp craft knife, fill the two halves with something, eg scrunched up paper, and stick the two halves of the ball back together again using more tape. Attach some fishing line to each ball, and then carefully cover it (without squashing the shape of it). Use silver foil, or silver spray paint, or paint. Finally hang the ball sculptures together to create a group or installation, thinking carefully about the overall shape(s) they create. Take photographs of the sculptures and/or make drawings Yayoi Kusama, Kusama’s Self-Obliteration 1968. 16 m m film, transferred of them. Experiment with hanging the sculptures in different to DVD. Courtesy the artist, Yayoi Kusama Studio, Victoria Miro Gallery, London and Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo © Yayoi Kusama, Yayoi Kusama Studio. places – your classroom, the hall or corridor, outside etc. Kusama fashion parade Discuss which spaces you think they look the most effective Inspiration: Kusama’s Self Obliteration, 1967 in and why. Kusama often uses herself as an artwork, has taken part in performances and has created some unusual costumes. Design and make your own costumes, cloaks, T shirts, hats, etc inspired by Kusama’s artwork. Use dots and other repeated patters in bright contrasting colours – sew, paint, safety pin, print or your costumes and use fabric, card, paper or other found materials. Dress up in the 18 Softs sculptures Inspiration: The Moment of Regeneration, 2004 Kusama began making soft sculptures in the 1960’s at a similar time to other artists who also experimented with soft sculptures such as Claes Oldenburg. Design and make some of your own soft sculptures inspired by natural forms, such as tentacles, shoots, coral, branches etc (imagine something growing out of something else). Make a template for your sculpture in paper and cut out the pieces in fabric. Decorate the fabric pieces if desired. Sew or stick the pieces together to make a hollow floppy shape, and leave one part of the shape open (to put the filling in). Fill the fabric shape with something that will make it stand up eg balls of newspaper, scraps of fabric, clay, plaster, sawdust, sand. When the shape is full and stands freely, sew or glue up the opening. Position all the sculptures Yayoi Kusama, WOMEN WAITING FOR SPRING [TZW] 2005. Courtesy the artist, Victoria Miro Gallery, London and Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo © Yayoi together to make a group, or installation. Take photographs Kusama, Yayoi Kusama Studio. of the sculptures, and/or make drawings of them. Think of a title for the artwork. Write a description of it, and say what it Repeat pattern prints reminds you of, and what it was inspired by. Inspiration: WOMEN WAITING FOR SPRING [TZW], 2005, from Kusama’s ‘Love Forever’ series Kusama enjoys experimenting with repeat patterns. Look at the series of prints ‘Love Forever’ and copy some of the repeat patterns in them. Look at some natural objects (shells, leaves, waves, grass etc) and make drawings of the repeat patterns you can see in them. Use this collection of repeat patterns to make your own series of black and white repeat pattern prints. Use black printing ink on white paper and white printing ink on black paper to make some mono prints of your repeat patterns. (Mono prints are a type of direct print made by inking a flat surface such as a piece of glass, then placing a piece of paper gently over it, and drawing a pattern onto the back of the paper so that the ink underneath transfers to the paper where the line is drawn. The paper can then be pealed back to reveal the print). There are lots of websites with step by step explanations of how to make a mono print, this website Yayoi Kusama, The Moment of Regeneration 2004. Courtesy the National gives a brief description for beginners: http://orderartwork. Museum of Modern Art Tokyo, the artist, Victoria Miro Gallery, London and Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo © Yayoi Kusama, Yayoi Kusama Studio. Photo: Keizo com/reproduction/Monoprinting.htm). Kioku. When you have made a collection of black and white prints, Mirror magic hang them together as a large group to create an Inspiration: Infinity Mirror Room-Phalli’s Field, 1965-98 (see installation. Look at all the prints and compare the example on page 20) different shapes and patterns used in them. How are they Kusama is interested in the idea of infinity, and experiments similar or different to Kusama’s prints? Can you tell what with the illusion of infinity in some of her installations. Use natural forms inspired the shapes and patterns? some mirror tiles or mirrored card, and masking tape or cellotape, to build a miniature room, which is full of reflections and gives the illusion of infinity. Place a model, or ‘cut out’ of a person, toy or action figure in the miniature room and observe how that figure is reflected. Take some photographs, and/or make some drawings of the figure and the reflections. Re-build the miniature room in a different shape to create new types of reflections – placing the figure inside it as you are building to see the ways in which the placement and direction of the mirrors/mirrored card alter the reflections inside it. Repeat this a few times, building different shaped miniature mirrored rooms and documenting a figure inside them through drawings and/or photographs. Write a description of what you think it would feel like to be inside one of the mirrored rooms.

19 Art terms glossary Abstract Expressionism: A movement composed of Nihonga painting: literally “Japanese-style paintings” is American artists in the 1940s and 1950s which was a term used to describe paintings that have been made in characterised by large abstract painted canvases. The accordance with Japanese traditional artistic conventions, movement had two groups – Action Painters such as techniques and materials. Nihonga are typically executed on Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline, and Helen Frankenthaler, and washi (Japanese paper) or eginu (silk), using brushes. The Colour Field painters such as and Barnett paintings can be either monochrome or polychrome. If Newman. The Action Painters’ work is characterised by monochrome, typically sumi (Chinese ink) made from soot sweeping, gestural lines; the Color Field painters’ work is mixed with a glue from fishbone or animal hide is used. If characterised by large, unmodulated areas of color. polychrome, the pigments are derived from natural ingredients: minerals, shells, corals, and even Appropriation: To appropriate something involves taking semi-precious stones like malachite, azurite or possession of it for use in a new context. In the visual arts, cinnabar. The raw materials are powdered into 16 the term appropriation often refers to the use of borrowed gradations from fine to sand grain textures. A hide glue elements in the creation of new work. The borrowed solution, called nikawa, is used as a binder for these elements may include images, forms or styles from art powdered pigments. Initially Nihonga were produced for history or from popular culture, or materials and techniques hanging scrolls (kakemono), hand scrolls (emakimono) or from non-art contexts. folding screens (byōbu). However, most are now produced on paper stretched onto wood panels, suitable for framing. Avant-garde: A group that is innovative and inventive in its technique, particularly in the arts. Avant-garde represents Op Art: Op Art, also known as optical art, is a genre of the pushing of boundaries of what is accepted as the norm visual art that makes use of optical illusions. Op Art works or the status quo, primarily in the cultural realm. are abstract, with many of the better known pieces made in only black and white. When the viewer looks at them, the Genre: Genres are categories with no fixed boundaries, impression is given of movement, hidden images, flashing they are formed by sets of conventions, and many works and vibration, patterns, or alternatively, of swelling or cross into multiple genres by way of borrowing and warping. recombining these conventions. Pop Art: An art movement and style that started in England Feminism: Feminism is the idea that women should have in the 1950s and moved to the United States in the 1960s. political, social, sexual, intellectual and economic rights Artists were influenced by the media and advertising and equal to those of men. It involves various movements, used familiar objects from popular culture as their theories, and philosophies, all concerned with issues of inspiration. gender difference, that advocate equality for women and the campaign for women’s rights and interests. Performance art: Performance art is art in which the actions of an individual or a group at a particular place and Installation: A form of art developed in the late 1950s to in a particular time constitute the work. It can happen challenge the dominance of painting and sculpture. anywhere, at any time, or for any length of time. Installations are three-dimensional artworks designed to Performance art can be any situation that involves four transform the perception of a whole room or particular basic elements: time, space, the performer’s body and a space. Many installations are site-specific in that they are relationship between performer and audience. designed to only exist in the space for which they were created. Screen print: Screen prints are a form of stenciling. The artist cuts out an image onto a sheet of paper or plastic : A performance, event, or situation considered film. The image is then placed on a screen of silk or fine as art, especially those initiated by the artists’ group Fluxus mesh fabric. The image is coated with ink, which is forced in the early 1960s. Happenings can take place anywhere, through the mesh onto the printing surface with a are often multidisciplinary and non-narrative, and frequently squeegee. seek to involve the audience in some way. The key elements of Happenings are planned, but artists sometimes retain room for improvisation.

Minimalism: Minimalism describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is stripped down to its most fundamental features. As a specific movement in the arts it is identified with developments in post-World War II western art, most strongly with American visual arts in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It is rooted in the reductive aspects of , and is often interpreted as a reaction against Abstract Expressionism and a bridge to practices.

20 Te Reo Māori glossary Mana: prestige, authority, control, power, influence, status, spiritual power, charisma – mana is a supernatural force in a person, place or object

Manawa: heart (of a person)

Marae: be generous, hospitable; courtyard – the open area in front of the wharenui, where formal greetings and discussions take place. Often also used to include the complex of buildings around the marae

Matapihi: window

Mauri: life principle, special nature, a material symbol of a life principle, source of emotions

Piupiu: a type of skirt made of flax, crown fern

Pō: to set (of the sun), darkness, night, place of departed spirits

Poupou: post, pole, upright slabs forming the framework of the walls of a house, carved wall figures

Roro: brain, marrow, spongy matter, front end of a meeting house, verandah, porch, lobby

Tāhuhu: ridge pole (of a house), subject of a sentence, main theme, direct line of ancestry

Tapu: sacred, prohibited, restricted, set apart, forbidden, under atua protection; restriction – a supernatural Yayoi Kusama Infinity Mirror Room-Phalli’s Field (or Floor Show) 1965. condition. Sewn fabric, board, mirror room. Installation view. Castellane Gallery,New York, USA. Courtesy the artist, Victoria Miro Gallery, London and Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo © Yayoi Kusama, Yayoi Kusama Studio. Tokomanawa: centre ridge pole of a meeting house (usu- ally pou tokomanawa) Ao: to dawn, be bright; world, Earth, globe, global, daytime, cloud Whakapapa: genealogy, genealogical table, lineage, de- scent; to lie flat, lay flat, recite in proper order (e.g. Te Ao mārama: world of life and light, Earth, physical world genealogies, legends, months), recite genealogies Heke: surfing, coming time, slope, rafter Wharenui: meeting house, large house, main building of a marae where guests are accommodated Kōpū: belly, womb, abdomen Whare whakairo: carved house, meeting house Te Kore: realm of potential being, The Void Te Aka Māori-English, English-Māori Dictionary and Index, http://www. Koru: be folded, looped, coiled, fold, loop maoridictionary.co.nz/

Koruru: carved face on the gable of a meeting house, often representing the ancestor after which the house is named

Kōwhaiwhai: painted scroll ornamentation – commonly used on meeting house rafters

Kūwaha: door, entrance, mouth

Maihi: bargeboards, the facing boards on the gable of a house, the lower ends of which are often ornamented with carving

21 Online resources and further reading resources Web sites Yayoi Kusama’s official web site: http://www.yayoi-kusama.jp/

Fun interactive online game inspired by Kusama’s artwork http://qag.qld.gov.au/kids/activities/online_interactives/kusamas_world_of_dots2/interactive

Biographical information about Kusama: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yayoi_Kusama

This site contains a range of photos of Kusama and her artwork http://www.kusamadocumentary.com/photo.php

On line interview, Yayoi Kusama with Robert Murdock 1966 New York http://collections.walkerart.org/item/archive/14

Artist profile and images of Kusama’s work http://www.roslynoxley9.com.au/artists/49/Yayoi_Kusama/profile/

Slide show of a selection of Kusama’s artworks: http://www.victoriamiro.com/artists/_31/

This site contains some exhibition reviews of Kusama’s work http://peterblumgallery.com/artists/yayoi-kusama/press

Detailed Biographical essay and images from past exhibitions: www.gagosian.com/artists/yayoi-kusama

Lists commercial galleries and museums that hold Kusama’s work www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/kusama_yayoi.html

Multimedia presentation of some of Kusama’s artworks (requires Flash plug in) http://www.visualarts.qld.gov.au/content/apt2002_standard.asp?name=APT_Artists_Yayoi_Kusama

Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney. Exhibition information and downloadable teacher’s resource kit for Yayoi Kusama: Mirrored Years: http://www.mca.com.au/

Printed material Bishop, Claire (ed.), Installation Art : A Critical History, Tate Publishing, London, 2005 (pp. 87, 90 – 92).

Burke, Gregory, Roger McDonald & Fumio Nanjo, Mediarena: Contemporary Art from Japan, Govett Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth, 2004 (pp 11-15, 20-21).

Devenport, Rhana, ‘YAYOI KUSAMA – IT STARTED FROM HALLUCINATION’, in APT 2002 : Asia –Pacific Triennial of Contempo- rary Art, ed. Lynne Seear, Brisbane: Queensland Art Gallery, 2002, (pp. 58 - 61).

Hoptman, Laura, Akira Tatehata & Udo Kultermann, Yayoi Kusama, Ltd, London, 2000.

Mason, Penelope (ed.), History of , Pearson Prentice Hall, New Jersey, 2005 (pp. 389-391).

Miro, Victoria, Jo Applin & Glenn Scott Wright, Yayoi Kusama, Victoria Miro, London, 2008.

Munroe, Alexandra, Yayoi Kusama: The 1950s and 1960s, Paintings, Sculpture, Works On Paper, Paula Cooper Gallery, Rhode Island, 1996.

Shuppan-Sha, Bijutsu, YAYOI KUSAMA: Eternity – Modernity, Japan, 2005.

Tatehata, Akira, PressPLAY: contemporary artists in conversation, Phaidon Press Ltd, New York, 2005.

Takashi, Azumaya, Kondo Kenichi, Kojima Yayoi, Uchida Mayumi & Kurata Akihiro, KUSAMATRIX : Kusama Yayoi, Kadokawa Shoten Pub. Co.Ltd., Japan, 2004.

Zelevansky, Lynn, Laura Hoptman, Akira Tatehata & Alexandra Munroe and ed. Thomas Frick, Love Forever : Yayoi Kusama, 1958 – 1968, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, 1998.

22 Secondary school artwork analysis Yayoi Kusama, Walking on the Sea of Death, 1981 (see full size image on reverse)

Yayoi Kusama, Walking on the Sea of Death (and the artist) 1981. Sewn stuffed fabric, wooden boat, paint. 58 x 256 x 158 cm. Courtesy the artist, Victoria Miro Gallery, London and Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo © Yayoi Kusama, Yayoi Kusama Studio. Questions 1. What can you see in this artwork? 2. How do you think it was made? 3. What does it remind you of? How does it make you feel? 4. How does the lighting of this installation affect the feeling of the piece? 5. Why do you think the artist has covered the boat in protrusions? 6. What could the boat symbolise? 7. If you could create a story about this artwork; what would have happened to the boat for it to become transformed in this way? And where is it going now? 8. What do you think Kusama intended us to feel when viewing this artwork? 9. How do the images of the boat on the walls, ceiling and floor relate to the sculpture itself? 10. Why do you think the artist used these images repetitively? Do they remind you of anything? 11. Have you seen any artworks like this before? 12. The title of this artwork is Walking on the Sea of Death, why do you think Kusama chose this title? What would you have chosen to call it? 13. If you could make a different artwork called ‘walking on the sea of death’, what would you make? 14. How would your artwork be different or similar to Kusama’s?

Background information • This sculptural installation made in 1981 is constructed from sewn stuffed fabric, a wooden boat, and paint. Kusama made a sculptural installation very similar to this one in 1963, which was exhibited in Gertrude Stein Gallery in New York. It was significant for Kusama as it was the first environment she had created by covering the whole room including the ceiling. She placed the sculpture of the boat in the middle of the room and surrounded it with 999 repeated images. The boat exhibited in New York was white, whereas the boat in Yayoi Kusama: Mirrored Years is silver. Apart from the difference in colour this piece is very similar to the earlier work.

•In the 1960’s Kusama made many sculptures using a similar process of ‘accumulation’, covering armchairs, sofas, tables, stools, and a step ladder amongst other things with a profusion of protrusions. The shapes of these protrusions have been likened to phallic objects, leading some people to view this work as an investigation into issues of gender and sexuality. The protrusions also bear resemblance to natural forms such as coral and fungus pointing to issues of death, decay, regeneration and growth.

23 Yayoi Kusama, Walking on the Sea of Death (detail) 1981. Sewn stuffed fabric, wooden boat, paint. 58 x 256 x 158 cm. Courtesy the artist, Victoria Miro Gallery, London and Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo © Yayoi Kusama, Yayoi Kusama Studio.