Yayoi Kusama
Some of her earlier work
Yayoi Kusama is a Japanese contemporary artist known for her immersive art installations, sculptures and paintings. Kusama was born on 22nd of March 1929 in Matsumoto, and trained at the Kyoto City University of Arts studying nihonga, a traditional form of Japanese painting. However, she was captivated by American abstract impressionism and moved to New York City in 1958 where she continues to create art to this day.
Kusama’s work is influenced by her vivid hallucinations of dense fields of dots, flowers that spoke to her and patterns in fabric that would come to life. Her art became her escape from her physically abusive family, and she would often sit by the river fixated on smooth white stones that covered the river bed, another influence behind her fixation of dots.
Kusama used a variety of mediums for her work, but she is well known for her sculptures and infinity rooms. However almost all of her work includes Polka Dots, sharing a similar idea to Ishihara Tests, a standardised set of tests for diagnosing colourblindness. As well as this the bold and contrasting colours that she often uses makes it accessible to a wide variety of visual impairments, and the repetitions of the dots creates a sense of energy and excitement in her artwork.
I love how playful her work looks. It helps to create a sense of positivity, something that I want to emulate in my own posters, as being diagnosed with any form of illness or disability can be daunting and I want to try an relieve some of that stress. I particularly love the tangibility in her work, and I really want to explore this later on.