Kusama in Photos

The life of an icon is a complicated thing. Experience begets art, and often experiences of an artist are anything but simple or easy. But as life goes on, the cards you’re dealt can be just as influential as how you play them.

The late Yayoi Kusama lived a troubled life. Plagued with hallucinations from an early age, she often isolated herself. Her mental health was not understood by her parents, who were too embroiled in their own relationship turmoil to notice the struggles of their daughter. Aggression featured heavily in her childhood. In response to a relentless mind and parental conflict, she turned to art. But even this outlet needed protection. Kusama would rush to finish her drawings, paintings, or other works, before they were snapped up by the prying eyes of her mother.

Growing up in this house, and in a society "too small, too servile, too feudalistic, and too scornful of women,” Kusama reportedly destroyed many of her early works, then moved to the USA for a fresh start. The hallucinations, disorders, and fears followed her. Between mental instability and being a young, Japanese woman in the highly competitive art scene in New York, Kusama struggled. When her inner self and the pressures of external forces were too much to handle, she turned to creativity as she had always done. Perhaps her most notable contribution to the art world was the infinity room, pioneered in 1965. Shapes within shapes, patterns within patterns, an infinite display that contextualized what Kusama couldn't otherwise name. These installations would change how visitors interacted with museums, and spawn a whole host of imitations, exhibits, and experiences.

Her artistry was rife with controversy as she pushed the boundaries of sculpture... and acceptance. She was an abrasive self-promoter, at one point painting her signature patterns on nude models in public. Her interactions with peers, fans, and curators were often unpleasant and highly demanding. She was known for being both reclusive and difficult, prone to rumination and self isolation. The obsessive repetition of human forms and recursive patterns in her exhibits tended to overwhelm visitors. In 2023, racist remarks from her memoir resurfaced, prompting a reckoning between the art and artist. She issued an apology, "deeply regretting" her words. Her journey was a complicated, and often turbulent one.

“All of my works are steps on my journey, a struggle for truth that I have waged with pen, canvas, and materials. Overhead is a distant, radiant star, and the more I stretch to reach it, the further it recedes. But by the power of my spirit and my single-hearted pursuit of the path, I have clawed my way through the labyrinthine confusion of the world of people in an unstinting effort to approach even one step closer to the realm of the soul.” - from Infinity Net: The Autobiography of Yayoi Kusama.

Kusama’s influence on photography is evident. Glass is full of images from her exhibits and experiences marked by her style. With over 20 different installations of infinity rooms alone, spanning across the globe, it’s no wonder. We’ve been mesmerized by the results of her work. Despite Kusama's personal hardships, we've also felt a bit more connected to the continuum.

A troubled soul in a finite body still has the potential for infinite legacy. Of Kusama, this much is true.