​YAYOI KUSAMA: Life is the Heart of a Rainbow,
in National Gallery Singapore (Exhibition from 9 Jun–3 Sep 2017) 

Yayoi Kusama (b. 1929) is a Japanese artist well known for her works of dots, nets, pumpkins and psychedelic colours that has reached not only the sphere of art but also in popular culture. She is one of my favourite contemporary artists from the 20-21st century along with British artists Damien Hirst, Marc Quinn and American artist Andy Warhol. Although Kusama’s works had evolved overtime, the underlining themes of repetition, reflection and immersion run prominently throughout. Since Kusama’s emergence in the early 1950s in Japan, she has played a major role in pop art, minimalist and feminist art movement. The conceptual art that she makes are mostly autobiographical and infused with psychological and sexual content. Below are some of the works that I enjoyed viewing or found interesting at the temporary exhibition of YAYOI KUSAMA: Life is the Heart of a Rainbow in National Gallery Singapore. 

​TRANSMIGRATION (2011, Acrylic on canvas, Collection of Ota Fine Arts)

EARLY WORKS: Yayoi Kusama’s earliest works were produced in her studio at home in Matsumoto, following her studies in nihonga (Japanese-style painting) in Kyoto. In the early stage, Kusama’s family strongly resisted her ambition to be an artist, and she had a difficult relationship with them. At the time, Japan was recovering from the World War II and effects of the atomic bomb. A sense of psychological tension was reflected in Kusama’s works, which already feature her trademark of repeated dot patterns.(Referenced from exhibition: YAYOI KUSAMA: Life is the Heart of a Rainbow, in National Gallery Singapore) 

Death of a Nerve (1976, Mixed media with stuffed fabric, Collection of Lito and Kim Camacho)

Imagery of Human-Beings (1987, Oil on canvas, Collection of Lito and Kim Camacho)

Status of Venus Obliterated by Infinity Nets No. 2
​(1998, Acrylic on canvas and fibreglass, Collection of Lito and Kim Camacho)

​INFINITY NETS: Infinity Nets have been a consistent feature of Kusama’s practice since the 1950s. Her early Infinity Nets were small paintings on paper, which drew on visual references such as the waves of the Pacific Ocean that the artist flew over en route from Japan to the United States in 1957. Composed of small loops painted over a monochromatic ground, their lattice patterns cover each canvas edge to edge with no focal point, and could potentially expand forever. This repetitive, all-over approach has continued into much of Kusama’s work. The artist credits this imagery to hallucinations she experienced as a child, and the continual reworking of this pattern- although different each time- as a way of integrating herself with the world. She calls this process ‘self-obliteration.’ (Referenced from exhibition: YAYOI KUSAMA: Life is the Heart of a Rainbow, in National Gallery Singapore) 

PUMPKIN (TWAQN) (2015, Acrylic on canvas, Private collection, Singapore)

​PUMPKINS: One of Kusama’s recurring motifs is the pumpkin and she painted it regularly in her nihonga classes at art school and it has reappeared often in her works since the 1980s. For Kusama, the pumpkin represents comfort and security. Pumpkins were a major part of her diet as a child during the World War II. Furthermore, her family also owned a nursery and grew fields of pumpkins and flowers. She first depicted pumpkins in paintings and prints, and later as installations and large sculptures. The speckled skin and bright colouring of kabocha (pumpkin in Japanese) have inspired Kusama’s distinctive yellow-and-black colour scheme. At the 1993 Venice Biennale, the Japanese artist received the unprecedented honour of a solo show in the Japanese Pavilion. She presented an infinity mirror room filled with mixed media pumpkins. (Referenced from exhibition: YAYOI KUSAMA: Life is the Heart of a Rainbow, in National Gallery Singapore) 

Pollen (1986, Sewn stuffed fabric, synthetic fibre and paint. Collection of Ota Fine Arts)

Picture of My Sister in an Immersive Installation (Find Work’s Title from Next Photo’s Caption)

Infinity Mirrored Room- Gleaming Lights of the Souls
​(2008, Mirrors, wooden panels, LED lights, metal, acrylic panels. Collection of the artist, Courtesy of Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo/ Singapore, Victoria Miro Gallery, London) 

MIRRORS AND INFINITY: Kusama first used mirrors in 1965 for her installation Infinity Mirrored Room- Phalli’s Field, a free-standing room with mirrored walls and a floor filled with stuffed polka-dotted phallic forms. A year later in Peep Show, she had viewers peering at themselves and others via small openings in a hexagonal mirrored box affixed with pulsating multi-coloured lightbulbs. Both works, at once immersive and voyeuristic, would become the models for her subsequent mirror rooms. Through her works, Kusama invites viewers to experience infinite space through the deft use of mirrored surfaces in her installations. Space, self and image are optically multiples, and simultaneously reinforced and dissipated. This confounds our sense of what is internal and external. It is also intended to heighten our anxieties regarding existence and annihilation. (Referenced from exhibition: YAYOI KUSAMA: Life is the Heart of a Rainbow, in National Gallery Singapore) 

Immersed in A Room Full of Colourful Dots 

With All My Love for the Tulips, I Pray Forever
​(2013-2017, Metal, fibreglass reinforced plastic, urethane, paint, stickers. Collection of the artist, Courtesy of Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo/ Singapore, Victoria Miro Galler, London, David Zwirener, New York)

LOVE FOREVER: a series comprises of 50 canvases filled with chains of images including eyes, dolls, gadgets, flowers, saw blades and profiles of female faces. The works were initially created with a black felt marker, a quick-drying and thus spontaneous medium that does not permit any revisions. This allowed Kusama to showcase her tremendous dexterity and drawing kills. The works were later turned into silkscreen prints on canvas. (Referenced from exhibition: YAYOI KUSAMA: Life is the Heart of a Rainbow, in National Gallery Singapore) 

Discussing Which Piece Was Our Favourite

Lucinda enjoying Kusama’s MY ETERNAL SOUL series

MY ETERNAL SOUL: My Eternal Soul is Kusama largest series of paintings to date and it grew out of her previous works on canvas. The series begun in 2009 and it is still an on-going project, with approximately 500 pieces of works produced already. She integrates both drawing and painting techniques, and feature a riot of brilliant colours from acid to electric hues to metallic paint. They are filled with decorative, iconographic and biomorphic elements that are different from her previous works, alongside with older motifs from the 1950s such as flowers, eyes, the artist’s self-portrait in profile, and as ever, dots and nets. The paintings in this series demonstrate Kusama’s continued ingenuity. She draws freely from her past imagery and features it in new surprising combinations with enduring motifs and painting technique. (Referenced from exhibition: YAYOI KUSAMA: Life is the Heart of a Rainbow, in National Gallery Singapore) 

MY ETERNAL SOUL (Continue): ​Initially, this series was intended to complete at 100 paintings, however Kusama found herself unable to stop and her canvases have become progressively larger. As with the Love Forever series, Kusama does not work on the canvases vertically on an easel, but paints horizontally on a table. She works on the canvases from all directions, either by rotating them or moving her own body. The final orientation of each canvas is only decided by Kusama after the painting is completed. Curator Masahiro Yasugi stated that ‘her works reveal a certain repetition of imagery until Kusama suddenly takes a completely different tack, suggesting a production process in which she faces the canvas without any conscious plan and spontaneously creates a painting.’ (Referenced from exhibition: YAYOI KUSAMA: Life is the Heart of a Rainbow, in National Gallery Singapore) 

Vibrant, Colourful Works

I Am So Lucky to Have a Sister That Shares Similar Passion And Interest With 

Interior Decorations at the National Gallery Singapore’s Building

Yellow Dotted Stairwell at National Gallery Singapore

Overall, I had a great experience at the National Gallery Singapore. I was so happy to be able to see more of Yayoi Kusama’s works in real life and learn more about her as an artist. Unfortunately the exhibition at the National Gallery Singapore has ended, if you want to check out her works, go on these two links for more information http://www.yayoi-kusama.jp/e/exhibitions/00.html or http://yayoikusamamuseum.jp/en/exhibition/current/. There is a Yayoi Kusama Museum just opened in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan! I would love to go and visit in the future too! (Added on my must-visit-museum list)
 
As for now, Happy Jetsetting! ✈

Location: National Gallery Singapore, Singapore

Dolac Market is located at the heart of Zagreb’s city centre. The market is known for selling fresh produced and flowers. Many locals visit daily for groceries and essentials. Though this market is also just as popular with tourists like myself because of its convenient location and for the variety of products. The market is very vibrant during the weekends. There were many street performances such as bands with brass instruments playing exciting fanfare music on the day I visited (Saturday). It was LIT! I loved the atmosphere of place and it really gave me a sense of the Croatian local culture. It is a place where you feel welcomed, a piece of home away from home.   
 
As for now, Happy Jetsetting! ✈

​Location: Dolac Market, Zagreb, Croatia