Mirrored Years

Yayoi Kusama, a name worth repeating
The picture on the left of Yayoi Kusama’sFireflies on the Water doesn’t do it justice, but right now, this is it. The most enchanting, exquisite, want-to-stay-lost-here space in Sydney.

Only four people at a time can be ushered into the immersive environment and for too brief a moment you can take in the scene. Don’t wander off the path – you’re surrounded by water – which in collusion with the mirrored walls and ceiling reflect hundreds of coloured fairy lights.

Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama’s major exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art spans more than four decades of her practice. Often described as Japan’s greatest living artist, Kusama has been presenting her work for exhibition since 1957. In 2008 one of her artworks sold at auction for $5.2 million representing the highest price ever paid for a work by a living female artist.

Escape here for a lunch break and you’ll avoid larger crowds and longer queues. You can walk through Kusama’s Clouds, the Narcissus Garden, consisting of a set of 500 stainless steel spheres, and admire works of all media and forms conveying her obsession with repetition, pattern and accumulation.

A formula mastered; this exhibition will leave you awestruck, repeatedly.

Yayoi Kusama: Mirrored Years
Exhibition until 8 June 2009
Museum of Contemporary Art
140 George Street, The Rocks, Sydney 2000
t: (02) 9245 2400

Previous article

Down by the boardwalk

Next article

Worthy threads

About the author