Art Square and Neighborhood
KUSAMA Yayoi
A Part of the lawn in Art Square is covered in colorful polka-dot patterns. Here one finds a cluster of eight sculptures with polka-dot and net patterns. Together they constitute Love Forever, Singing in Towada, and include several of Kusama Yayoi’s ubiquitous motifs: pumpkin, girl, dog, and mushroom. The outdoor installation created by Kusama on this time occasion is of unprecedented size for the artist. The sculpture of a girl, named Hanako-chan of Towada, looks resolutely straight ahead and appears brimming with energy. She also seems to be singing her heart out in the middle of the spotted field. As such she is the embodiment of Yayoi Kusama herself, who continues to apply her pure, unrestricted spirit to the act of creating.
Another of the sculptures is a giant pumpkin, inside which seven colored beams flicker in the darkness, these rays of light surrounding the viewer, inviting them into an ever-proliferating world.
The colorful creativity of Kusama’s art infuses it with eternal life and crosses all boundaries to make Towada a livelier, more playful, and vibrant place.
Photo: Oyamada Kuniya
KUSAMA Yayoi
Avant-garde artist and novelist. Born 1929 in Nagano, Japan. From childhood, Kusama created fantastical paintings composed of polka dots and meshes. She relocated to the US in 1957, where she developed her standing as an avant-garde artist, returning to Tokyo in 1973. Kusama represented Japan at the 1993 Venice Biennale, staging the Japanese pavilion’s first solo exhibition. She received the Asahi Prize in 2001, and was recognized as a Person of Cultural Merit in 2009, the same year she began her My Eternal Soul series. In 2011, she kicked off a major retrospective touring four cities in Europe and North America with stops at Tate Modern (London, UK) and Centre Pompidou (Paris, France); in 2012, a ten-city domestic tour marking the launch of her collaboration with Louis Vuitton; in 2013, a retrospective touring Latin America and Asia; and in 2015, a retrospective touring northern Europe. Kusama was named the world’s most popular artist by The Art Newspaper in 2014, and one of the world’s 100 most influential people by Time magazine in 2016, the same year she was awarded the Japanese Order of Culture.
Love Forever, Singing in Towada
2010
Mixed media
My Yellow Pumpkin Discovered in Towada
642×590×390 cm
Hanako-chan of Towada
140×100×260 cm
Mushroom of the Sun
243×244×250 cm
Spirit of Mushroom
164×167×230 cm
God of Love
250×260×300 cm
Ring-Ring
134×60×98 cm
Ken
101×48×80 cm
Toko-Ton
88×28×68 cm
