What to expect and see at the Yayoi Kusama art exhibit
Jessica Frascà STAFF COLUMNIST
Photo: Jessica Frascà / THE MIKE.
You have probably already seen all over your Facebook and Instagram newsfeed images from the Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirrors exhibit at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO). The much-anticipated exhibit is here from March 3 to May 27. It is an exhibit worth checking out if you are into seeing art that will allow you to immerse yourself into an installation that gives off a sense of time and space and suggests a cosmic hyper-reality. There are six different rooms, each with their very own theme, with artworks and sculptures to compliment the display of the works. This in fact is a contemporary exhibit, which allows the viewer to experience a fantasy.
The six rooms are set up in chronological order from 1965 to present. The artist Yayoi Kusama, age 88, has a sense of style with the use of colours, repetition, and excessive use of polka dots. The Infinity Mirrors exhibit begins with the artist’s milestone installation, Infinity Mirror Room — Phalli’s Field (1965/2016), a dense and dizzying field of hundreds of red-spotted repeated sculptures in a room lined with mirrors. The Dots Obsession — Love Transformed into Dots (2007/2017) infinity room has pink polka-dotted balloons hanging from the ceiling and occupying the floor. The Love Eternity Room (1966/1994) is another personal enjoyable experience from the exhibit where two visitors are allowed to peak into a peephole to see inside a room that has a kaleidoscope effect with colourful LED lights put on display. A particular favourite room of mine was the one in which you receive stickers and have to help the artist colour the white room using the polka dot stickers. It allows the public to also become artists themselves. The different rooms all have a unique experience in each from the colours used as well as the objects chosen. For instance, one room, All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins (2016), showcases the artist’s admiration of pumpkins and presents the room as if you were entering a fairytale.
In order for you to be prepared to enter this exhibit, I would suggest to first go through the exhibit without using your phone for pictures. Take this as an opportunity to try to take in the artist’s work as a room to enter a supernatural world. Then go again into the room and use your cellphone to take photos so you can update your social media pages. Another suggestion would be to try to get tickets for three people; this would allow you to be in the room without any strangers.
The biggest question that everyone is wondering is if this exhibit is worth checking out or if it’s just overhyped. The fact that the exhibit comes from Japan and is here for a short amount of time does make it a worthwhile experience. Also, it’s not like any other special exhibit put on at the AGO. In fact, it’s interactive and allows you to gain your own experience in each of the rooms. It is true that people are showing off a bit too much on social media being at the exhibit. Regardless of the tedious process to buy and order tickets — since the wait online took hours — the wait is worth it because you get to stay in there for 20 seconds, which allows everyone to have a right to show off their experience being at the exhibit.
