Yayoi Kusama
Yayoi Kusama With All My Love For The Tulips, I pray Forever (2011)
Every now and then, an immersive experience otherwise known as–an opportunity for Instagram selfies pops up in L.A. And in this case it is Yayoi Kusama's With All My Love For The Tulips, I pray Forever (2011) is now on view at the Marciano Art Foundation. This exhibit is floor-to-ceiling white with red polka dots patterns that diminish the the appearance of depth with oversized flower-potted tulips made from fiberglass.
Yayoi Kusama is From Tokyo, Japan. Her mother wanted her to throw away all her art and marry a rich man. She escaped to New York instead....in the 50s: a time when the art world was aggressively male-dominated. She began painting patters from dawn till dusk. As she began to draw the patterns, they expanded outside the canvas to fill the floor and walls. And that is how she became an environmental artist. When she would look far away she began to see hallucinations. And because of this, she broke all the boundaries of space.
Obsessions, phallus obsessions, and obsessions of fear are the main themes of her art. She now lives in a mental institution. By day she occupies a studio where she keeps an archive of her art and works there from 9am–6pm.
Her famous patterns inspired fashion collaborations and graphic designers with their advertising campaigns. After a string of artist collaborations with the likes of Stephen Sprouse, Takashi Murakami and Richard Prince, Louis Vuitton teamed up with Kusama on a collection and was— and most probably, still is—the largest artist collaboration initiated by any luxury goods or fashion house, spanning leather goods, ready-to-wear apparel and accessories.
Written and Photography by Marina Murad
Published by Design Geek in Heels