Art pick of the week: INFINITY MIRRORED ROOM – LET’S SURVIVE FOREVER

Who could forget our wildly popular spring 2018 exhibition Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors? We can’t! Following the momentous outpouring of love shown for Kusama’s spectacular work, we launched #InfinityAGO, a crowdfunding campaign that saw more than 4,700 generous donors contribute to give year-round access to this week’s art pick: INFINITY MIRRORED ROOM – LET’S SURVIVE FOREVER.

After booking a viewing time upon your arrival at the AGO, you and your party get to experience this mirrored chamber of endless reflections. Small stainless steel orbs—which also act as mirrors—fill the room, whimsically hanging from the ceiling as well as covering the peripheral part of the floor. LET’S SURVIVE FOREVER’s centrepiece, however, is you, reflected in the large rectangular mirror box in the middle of the installation. Viewing this box in relation to the perimeter of the space is what allows for the type of other-worldly, infinite experiences Kusama’s installation are famous for.

Yayoi Kusama has had an interesting and diverse career over the past six decades. Born in Matsumoto, Nagano, Japan in 1929, Kusama first studied traditional Japanese painting before relocating to New York City around the age of 30. Active at the same time as Pop Art icons Andy Warhol and Claes Oldenburg, she is considered to be a staple in the avant-garde art movement of 1960s New York. Developing work through new mediums like sculpture and performance art, Kusama’s fame grew as she became more bold and political in her approach –staging large scale anti-war happenings and building polka dot-covered phallic objects. In 1966, her first ever infinity room (Infinity Mirror Room: Phalli’s Field) was created.

Since then her work with mirrors and reflection has focused primarily on the idea of self-obliteration. LET’S SURVIVE FOREVER uses the infinite reflection of the subject (the viewer) and the motif of polka dots to visually allow the self to disappear in the eternal abyss. The clever irony of this concept in our modern, social media era of selfies might be Kusama’s most important contribution yet.

Stay tuned for next week’s Art Pick.

Admission to the AGO Collection and all special exhibitions is always free for AGO Members, AGO Annual Pass holders and visitors 25 and under. For more information, please visit the website.

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