9. Yayoi Kusama and her first infinity mirror room

When the time came to chose one of Kusama's works for analysis, I got pretty lost, because with such an artists, who has been strikingly productive during many years (since 80's till today) and,besides, is pretty famous, it is rather complicated to chose one single piece. The choice of the artist, however, was something like 'the time has come' bell rang inside my head. My acquaintance with Kusama started when I spontaneously went to her exhibition in Tate modern. And to say that I was impressed by the diversity of the artist's approach is to say nothing. One single exhibition contained multiple paintings, sculptures, settings and, of course, an infinity mirror room. Even though I came across her art may times after that, I have just recently realized that never tried to dig deeper, but rather was enjoying the pleasant visual effect her works gave me. Therefore, in order to get better insight of that extraordinary artist, I decided to start from her very first infinity mirror room ever exhibited - "Phalli's Field".

Infinity Mirror Room "Phalli's Field"

Yayoi Kusama

1965

In 1960's when the artist lived and worked in New York, she was considered as a representative of avant garde scene with a high shocking value of her works. The first infinity room was not an exception. Being exhibited in 1965, it was a 25 - square meters room with mirrors instead of walls and a 'field' of soft phalli sculptures covering the floor. Obviously, the mirrors were there to create this effect of endlessness. Another important detail is the of the sculptures is that they are cover in Kusama's signature polka dots pattern. 

The installation can not be detach from sexual connotation. From one side, it looks like a reference to the artist's personality, her inner frustrations, maybe even phobias. The fact that the phalli objects are modified into something soft-toyish and covered in polka dots, can be a representation of how Kusama tried to cope with the burden of reality and  curb her obsessions and  The mirrors, the reflection creates this effect of another multiple, at the same time, the viewer becomes depicted within one plain with the phalli field, which might be a call from the artist to explore the unknown and embrace the freedom. 

In terms of Kusama's oeuvre, the creation of infinity room became the next level of her never ending pathway of obsessive repetition - it allowed her to make an endless repetition effect without substantial efforts, close the gaps in her productivity. For viewers, infinity mirror room became a kind of way to escapology in art and an ability to dive into the artist's reality.