Many labels such as Queen of Polka Dots, Queen of Japanese Art, Queen of Topics, Mental Illness, and Weird Mother-in-Law are not enough to encompass Yayoi Kusama’s complex and changeable life. Together with Nobuyoshi Araki, he was criticized as a representative of Japan's bad taste. He is over 80 years old. He has used half a century of artistic creation to continuously prove himself and witnessed avant-garde artists such as Andy Warhol and Yoko Ono. history of contemporary art. When talking about those influential figures in an exclusive interview with "The Bund Illustrated", she said: "I don't think anyone is more talented than me. I have always spent all my time on art, and put all my original thoughts and ideas into it." Used in works representing Yayoi Kusama."
This summer, the trees along the Thames River in London, England will be wrapped in white polka dots on a red background; in September, at the Hayward Gallery in London. Huge sculptures will decorate the inside and outside of the gallery space in a bright and fashionable way; huge, repetitive, red and white dots spread across the corners of London. Anyone who is familiar with contemporary art will immediately remember that these iconic dots belong to the "Japanese weird old woman" wearing similar patterned clothes.
This is the world-famous polka dot queen, Japanese super art queen, and topic queen—Yayoi Kusama. According to statistics, in Japan, about 30% of the clothing worn by young people has polka dot patterns. When Yayoi Kusama was about 10 years old, she began to decorate herself with asymmetrical sweaters with red sleeves, half red and half white. To this day, all her clothes are designed by herself. The dots, like her mental illness, have become the deepest mark on the artist.
Forty years ago, the Asian woman Yayoi Kusama became a pioneer of New York’s avant-garde art, with an influence comparable to that of Pop Art leader Andy Warhol. More than 30 years ago, she returned to Tokyo, stayed in a mental sanatorium, and disappeared. In 1993, she represented Japan alone at the Venice Biennale, making a comeback and establishing her position in international art.
The British "Times" announced the results of a survey of the 200 greatest artists of the 20th century. Picasso and Cézanne ranked first and second, and no Chinese artist was selected. There are four Japanese artists on the list, namely Takashi Murakami, Yayoi Kusama, Hiroshi Sugimoto and Isamu Noguchi. Compared with Japanese artists such as Takashi Murakami, the 80-year-old "weird mother-in-law" Yayoi Kusama is a full thirty or forty years ahead of them.
Artists at the mental sanatorium
Every morning at the Shinjuku Mental Sanatorium, 80-year-old Yayoi Kusama slowly goes out with the help of her assistants. She returned to Tokyo from New York in 1973, and she lived this way for more than 30 years.
During the day, she went to work in a nearby studio and returned to the nursing home at night. She rarely goes out, rarely meets guests, does not visit department stores, does not know how to use computers and mobile phones, and lives a life of isolation from the world. This interview with "The Bund Pictorial" was also completed with the assistance of an assistant.
When she was less than 10 years old, Yayoi Kusama suffered from neurological audio-visual impairment and often experienced auditory and visual hallucinations. The world she saw was covered by a huge net, so she kept drawing, trying to express her hallucinations with repeated dots - mental illness and artistic creation stayed with her almost all her life.
"One day, I sat on a chair and looked at the textures and colors on the red tablecloth, and began to look for the same textures around me, from the windows, walls, ceilings to every part of the room. A corner, including my body. In the process of searching, I felt that I was gradually being eroded and destroyed. Time and space kept spinning, and I became insignificant. At that moment, I realized that this was not just a corner. This kind of hallucination is also a kind of existence in real life. I was frightened by this real hallucination. I had a strong fear of the red tablecloth and the texture on it... I ran away, but the steps were scattered under my feet. I fell down the steps and broke my hands and ankles..."
In her studio near the sanatorium, she completed thousands of works, including giant pumpkins. At the same time, she also published more than a dozen novels and poetry collections. Yayoi Kusama finally bought a building next door to the nursing home. She said that it was the largest expense in her life, but it was crucial. "I painted there and designed sculptures. That was my job and everything I had."
In 1973, Yayoi Kusama returned to Japan from New York and stayed away from the public eye. Very little is known about her life, and the only clue is her long-term psychiatric treatment. The documentary set at Yayoi Kusama's studio was released, making her private archives public for the first time, and it was a huge hit. Yayoi Kusama in the camera is short and slightly stooped, wearing polka-dot clothes designed by herself, a brightly colored wig and heavy makeup.
In the studio, Kusama will change into loose work clothes and start working for at least 8 hours. The nursing home took excellent care of the 80-year-old man. Yayoi Kusama is in good health, but she is no longer so good at painting and often needs help from assistants. After her assistants completed the time-consuming and tiring painting work, she used her own unique dots to express different hallucinations and dreams.
In the mental sanatorium, Kusama had a private bedroom. Even late at night, after returning from the studio, she can still work here. Write novels, write poems, draw design drawings or some small paintings. On weekdays, she would call her agent and ramble about her situation the day before, the latest progress of a certain work, and even her favorite dessert—she has a sweet tooth. Even when she is in a very good mental state, Kusama often forgets what she has said, or repeats what she has said. The other party is completely accustomed to this method, so that the call time is a bit long.
Yayoi Kusama has always paid attention to the newspaper that made her famous more than 40 years ago. She read the newspaper religiously every day, usually starting with the political section, a habit she had maintained for decades. "It's very difficult to live in Japan, except in a mental sanatorium." Yayoi Kusama said in an interview many years ago. Yayoi Kusama used to suffer from schizophrenia. When lying in bed, she would feel that the ceiling was spinning. It was so strong that she felt dizzy and couldn't control herself. Then she would become very depressed and anxious. Today, when she is alone, she still has the same troubles. In fact, as early as decades ago, some people suggested that Yayoi Kusama was using her own mental problems to promote publicity. To this day, people still don’t know about her mental condition. The only certainty is that she still lives in a mental sanatorium.
In 2010, the Taipei Gallery Expo invited Yayoi Kusama to appear as an art star. Accompanied by her agent, she agreed to go and brought a "Pumpkin" several meters high and covering an area of ??dozens of square meters to the scene. This is the closest she has ever been to Chinese fans. Due to the language barrier, Yayoi Kusama was taciturn at the expo and at the reception, and her opening speech was completed by her agent. Some media pointed out that agents, assistants and others were like cotton stuffed around the fragile glass product of Yayoi Kusama, helping her take care of everything. Yayoi Kusama spent most of her time resting and creating in a mental sanatorium, wandering between the two identities of an artist and a mental patient.
"Yayyoi Kusama drilled a hole in some wall and glimpsed a certain gesture or back view of the creator. From then on, she lived on this wall, looking back and looking forward between two worlds. ” Cai Kangyong put it this way in a blog post titled “Artist Yayoi Kusama Voluntarily Stayed in a Mental Sanatorium.”