Lost in Headspace

Yayoi Kusama's installation at Phoenix Art Museum, Stepping Into You Who Are Getting Obliterated in the Dancing Swarm of Fireflies, feels like a glimpse into the infinite. Countless LEDs stand out against the engulfing darkness while mirrored walls reflect their endless glow as they shift colors in time with the...

By Jose Gonzalez

November 12, 2009

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Yayoi Kusama's installation at Phoenix Art Museum, Stepping Into You Who Are Getting Obliterated in the Dancing Swarm of Fireflies, feels like a glimpse into the infinite. Countless LEDs stand out against the engulfing darkness while mirrored walls reflect their endless glow as they shift colors in time with the soft pulse of a slowly sprawling universe. The experience can be a meditation on life as singular specks in space, but it might also be a peek into Kusama's headspace. I Adore Myself, a documentary about the 80-year-old Japanese artist, indicates as much. Director Takako Matsumoto traces the path of Kusama's life, originating with her earliest works that involve polka dots on nearly any surface possible to create what she called "infinity nets." These works reflect her childhood hallucinations and obsessive thoughts as she continues to work from the mental hospital she's lived in voluntarily since the 1970s.
Wed., Nov. 18, 4 & 7 p.m., 2009

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