Yayoi Kusama pumpkins and paintings in London

A few weeks ago I heard that a Yayoi Kusama installation was coming to London and I immediately booked tickets. I am so glad I did because they quickly sold out. I booked for a day during half term and this was our only planned day out in London.

Yayoi Kusama: THE MOVING MOMENT WHEN I WENT TO THE UNIVERSE

The Yayoi Kusama installation is a free event at the Victoria Miro gallery near Old Street. Arriving at our allotted time, we showed our tickets and were allowed inside the gallery. Handed another ticket, we were then ushered upstairs to queue for the Infinity Mirrored Room. We had to wait a little while as only 4 people were allowed into the room at one time.

INFINITY MIRRORED ROOM – MY HEART IS DANCING INTO THE UNIVERSE

This was a large mirrored room with paper lanterns covered with polka-dot patterns, suspended from the ceiling. It was a fantastic immersive experience although sadly we were only allowed inside for 60 seconds!

PUMPKINS

The pumpkin is a recurring motif in Kusama’s art. There were sculptures and paintings in really vibrant reds, yellows and greens, adorned with tapering patterns of black dots.

FLOWERS THAT SPEAK ALL ABOUT MY HEART GIVEN TO THE SKY

Outside in the Waterside Garden we saw the next part of the installation. The large-scale painted bronze flower sculptures are fun and bright. Obviously the children wanted to climb all over them as they looked pretty inviting to them.

MY ETERNAL SOUL PAINTINGS

The final part of the exhibition was in another art of the gallery up several flights of stairs. The series of paintings were huge and filled the huge gallery. To be honest they looked like something the children could have easily created; improvisatory, with eyes, faces and lots of dots.

We loved looking at them and I think we will have fun creating some inspired Kusama art at home.

It was a fun exhibition and I’m really glad I got to see it, even if I was constantly telling the children not to touch anything. I think they enjoyed it too. You can read about the Wizarding Wands installation we saw on the same day.