The work of Yayoi Kusama, a Japanese artist or “The Polka Dot Princess” is most known for her works to be in the form of black dots. Her dots have inspired many artists across the world! She was working within the same era a Andy Warhol, but she was not as publicized as he was. It was because of her gender and also because of her race. She was noted for making more works then Andy along with being most noted within the post war New York art scene. But what I appreciated most was that she was noted to be one of the influences of Andy Warhol. (artsy.net)
Her work is more notably dots but she also portrays loops at an infinite number. Her reasoning behind the repetitive pattern is to represent infinity. Yet, her dot obsession came from fear. When she was a little girl she experienced a dream of herself within a large field. This field spread for miles and contained flowers, these flowers were in the form of dots. But, these flowers could also speak. She was overwhelmed by the surrounding flowers that they engulfed her, which in turn inspired her dot form and infinite number of them. She explained that by surrounding her physical self with these dots she is in a sense becoming one with them.
“‘Our earth is only one polka dot among a million stars in the cosmos. Polka dots are a way to infinity. When we obliterate nature and our bodies with polka dots, we become part of the unity of our environment’.”-Y. Kusama (tate.org)
She illustrates/ constructs these installations that usually show an entire room. She obliterates the room with her dots in hopes of sharing her infinity with the world. In doing this she hopes to convey an understanding of her mind set to you, the viewer.
She now lives within a mental facility but she has part time access (with accompaniment) to her studio space where she is free to commence with her infinite dots in peace.
sources:
https://www.artsy.net/artist/yayoi-kusama
https://www.tate.org.uk/kids/explore/who-is/who-yayoi-kusama
Photo cred:
https://whitney.org/Exhibitions/YayoiKusama
https://ago.ca/exhibitions/kusama
-the infinity room
https://www.widewalls.ch/artist/yayoi-kusama/
-Pumpkin sculpture 1998