Dots all, folks—at the Hirshhorn, artist Yayoi Kusama immerses viewers in infinity

Dots all, folks—at the Hirshhorn, artist Yayoi Kusama immerses viewers in infinity¹

Transcript²

One With Eternity³: Yayoi Kusama, the new show at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C., is small and magical. Much like the artist. Five-foot-not-much, Yayoi Kusama uses just a handful of elements — dots, pumpkins⁵, mirrors, phalluses — and creates environments you can enter, and then lose yourself in.

Is it great art? "We think so," Hirshhorn Director Melissa Chiu says with a chuckle⁶. Smilingly, she points to a huge, glossy⁷ Kusama pumpkin⁴ — yellow with black dots — that occupies a gallery whose yellow walls, ceiling and floor are covered with more black dots. We carve pumpkins at Halloween; 93-year old Kusama enshrines them as art.

"When she was seven, " says curator Betsy Johnson, "she recounts that pumpkins would speak to her from time to time." Johnson says Kusama showed signs of psychosis very young. In her small village in Japan, she started drawing her hallucinations, putting them down on paper. "She came to call it psychosomatic art." Compulsively, over and over, with her black marker, she makes repetitive images. They calm her down.

In the 1960s, Kusama began creating works which made special magic. "Kusama environments," Hirshhorn Director Chiu calls them. Infinity Mirror Rooms, Kusama named them. They take the form of cube-shaped rooms. Inside, mirrors cover the walls, the ceiling, the floor. They reflect an infinity of images. The first, in 1965, creates a field of phallic-shaped soft sculptures she made — white fabric⁸, covered with lipstick-red dots. There are photos of her at age 36 in a lipstick-red leotard, resting among them.

Kusama's Infinity Rooms are most breath-taking when she suspends countless⁹ small lights from the mirrored ceiling. I entered one of those at the Broad in Los Angeles (there are others in New York, Dallas, Houston and Boston). I could stay inside for only 45 seconds, timed by a museum guard. So many people came to experience the Kusama, we could only get quick glimpses. I stood there, alone — in the cosmos¹⁰, it felt. 45 seconds, out of this world. The lights and mirrors made infinity, and made us joyful¹¹.

I ask curator Betsy Johnson what makes Kusama so popular. "We want to experience something that bowls us over," she says. Something "that makes us feel different than what we get to experience day in and day out."

That may be the artist's motivation as well. The work is her happiness.

Yayoi Kusama, creator of joy, says she has been suicidal for some years. In Tokyo, she lives in a mental hospital, and crosses the street to her studio every day to make these delights. Her art sustains her, and transforms audiences.

Art Where You're At is an informal series showcasing online offerings at museums you may not be able to visit.

1 infinity   

n.无限，无穷，大量

参考例句：

• It is impossible to count up to infinity.不可能数到无穷大。
• Theoretically,a line can extend into infinity.从理论上来说直线可以无限地延伸。

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 eternity   

n.不朽，来世；永恒，无穷

参考例句：

• The dull play seemed to last an eternity.这场乏味的剧似乎演个没完没了。
• Finally,Ying Tai and Shan Bo could be together for all of eternity.英台和山伯终能双宿双飞，永世相随。

4 pumpkin   

n.南瓜

参考例句：

• They ate turkey and pumpkin pie.他们吃了火鸡和南瓜馅饼。
• It looks like there is a person looking out of the pumpkin!看起来就像南瓜里有人在看着你！

5 pumpkins   

n.南瓜( pumpkin的名词复数 )；南瓜的果肉，南瓜囊

参考例句：

• I like white gourds, but not pumpkins. 我喜欢吃冬瓜，但不喜欢吃南瓜。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Then they cut faces in the pumpkins and put lights inside. 然后在南瓜上刻出一张脸，并把瓜挖空。 来自英语晨读30分（高三）

6 chuckle   

vi.／n.轻声笑，咯咯笑

参考例句：

• He shook his head with a soft chuckle.他轻轻地笑着摇了摇头。
• I couldn't suppress a soft chuckle at the thought of it.想到这个，我忍不住轻轻地笑起来。

7 glossy   

adj.平滑的；有光泽的

参考例句：

• I like these glossy spots.我喜欢这些闪闪发光的花点。
• She had glossy black hair.她长着乌黑发亮的头发。

8 fabric   

n.织物，织品，布；构造，结构，组织

参考例句：

• The fabric will spot easily.这种织品很容易玷污。
• I don't like the pattern on the fabric.我不喜欢那块布料上的图案。

9 countless   

adj.无数的，多得不计其数的

参考例句：

• In the war countless innocent people lost their lives.在这场战争中无数无辜的人丧失了性命。
• I've told you countless times.我已经告诉你无数遍了。

10 cosmos   

n.宇宙；秩序，和谐

参考例句：

• Our world is but a small part of the cosmos.我们的世界仅仅是宇宙的一小部分而已。
• Is there any other intelligent life elsewhere in the cosmos?在宇宙的其他星球上还存在别的有智慧的生物吗？

11 joyful   

adj.欢乐的，令人欢欣的

参考例句：

• She was joyful of her good result of the scientific experiments.她为自己的科学实验取得好成果而高兴。
• They were singing and dancing to celebrate this joyful occasion.他们唱着、跳着庆祝这令人欢乐的时刻。