Take a Sneak Peek at Yayoi Kusama’s Highly Anticipated New York Botanical Garden Exhibition, Which Features a Brand-New Outdoor Infinity Room

The New York Botanical Garden has finally revealed
details for its eagerly awaited
Yayoi Kusama exhibition, which
opens in May.

Works by the Japanese artist will be scattered across the
250-acre garden grounds, with rows of trees wrapped in red
polka-dotted fabric leading the way between installations.

“No trees will be harmed by the mounting of this exhibition,”
NYBG president and CEO Carrie Rebora Barratt assured press at a
preview of the show, which she described as “a mesmerizing
indoor-outdoor spectacle that is designed to change with the
seasons.”

And yes, there will be a new Infinity Room,
titled Infinity Mirror Room—Illusion Inside the
Heart. But this work is designed for the outdoors, and will
respond to changes in natural lighting conditions. It
will be one of two Infinity Rooms in the show.

The exhibition will include never-before-exhibited works from
the artist’s archive and four other pieces created specially for
the show.

Kusama is also creating her first obliteration greenhouse,
inviting visitors to stick fake coral-colored flowers on the
surfaces of the building’s interior.

Although this will be the first time that Kusama has done a
major presentation at a botanical garden, the setting is a perfect
fit for the artist, whose work has always been linked to plant
life. “[Kusama’s] fascination with the natural world is woven
throughout her life,” Barratt said.

When the artist was growing up, her grandparents ran a plant
nursery and seed farm near her home, and as a 16-year-old, Kusama
filled an entire sketchbook with carefully annotated drawings of
peonies. That work will be on view for the first time ever in the
exhibition.

“Coming of age during World War II, Kusama, like other
progressive artists, was drawn to plants life as a vital force that
sought to overcome chaos and the nihilism of war,” said
exhibition curator Mika Yoshitake, who was previously responsible
for Kusama’s blockbuster 2017–19 North American
tour.

Throughout the exhibition, the garden’s horticulturalists will
augment Kusama’s vision with seasonal floral installations.

On the conservatory lawn, they’ll create a colorful backdrop for
a new 16-foot-tall sculpture titled Dancing Pumpkin.
The plantings will be inspired by the birch forests of Matsumoto,
Japan, where Kusama grew up.

“We were more than a little daunted by the notion of creating
living vignettes that could stand in conversation Kusama’s
celebrated art,” admitted Todd A. Forrest, the garden’s vice
president for horticulture and living collections.

“It has been so much fun to learn about Kusama’s work, and to
find plants that will match the vitality of her incredible
self-driven painting.”

Most ambitiously, Forrest’s team will attempt to
recreate ALONE, BURIED IN A FLOWER
GARDEN (2014), a painting from Kusama’s “My Eternal Soul”
series, with plants in the conservatory’s gallery.

Mimicking the canvas, which resembles an aerial view of a garden
bed, sections of differently colored flowers will be separated by
dark gravel.

Kusama exhibitions always draw long lines, so you’re going to
want to plan ahead for this one.

But the garden is hoping to keep things running smoothly with
two tiers of tickets, including specially timed entry passes for
the two Infinity Rooms. (Confusingly, those passes are not
included in the Kusama All-Garden Pass.)

Tickets go on sale February 19 for members, and to the general
public on February 26. The garden is setting aside 100,000 free
tickets for low-income Bronx residents.

See more works from the exhibition and photos of the artist
below.

“Kusama: Cosmic Nature” will be
on view at the New York Botanical Garden, 2900 Southern Boulevard,
the Bronx, New York, May 9–November 1, 2020.

The post Take a Sneak Peek at Yayoi Kusama’s Highly
Anticipated New York Botanical Garden Exhibition, Which Features a
Brand-New Outdoor Infinity Room appeared first on artnet
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