South Korea joins the dots

LARGE RED BALLOONS with white polka dots hang like big character balloons at an amusement park, greeting viewers as they enter the fun, strange world of Yayoi Kusama created at Daegu Art Museum.
More fun awaits as you take a closer look inside the balloons – infinitely mirrored spaces with small red-and-white polka-dotted balloons stretching endlessly into the distance.
The large-scale installation, which fills the three-storey museum, is one of the new works by the acclaimed Japanese artist.
The show is the biggest-ever Kusama exhibition held in Asia outside Japan and will tour major countries, including China, Macau, Taiwan and India, according to the museum director.
“It’s hard to say it’s a retrospective. Compared to other Kusama exhibitions being held around the world at the moment, it has more new works by the artist,” says museum director Kim Sun-hee.
Three major exhibitions of Kusama’s works are currently being held. The one in Daegu, which opened on Tuesday, another in Japan and another in Argentina as part of the European and South American exhibition tour.
While the Daegu exhibition space is relatively unknown, Kim hopes the artist brings vitality to the museum, which opened two years ago.
“People say contemporary art is hard to understand and not fun. This is a test for our museum to see if we can prove otherwise,” says Kim, who aims to draw 300,000 viewers to this exhibition.
“Kusama’s works need no explanation. They offer strong inspiration, happiness and mystery all at the same time to anyone,” Kim added.
The exhibition showcases 118 of Kusama’s works, including 30 new pieces alongside signature sculptures and installations.
“Kusama has devoted three years to painting. She has set a goal of painting 300 works. Kusama doesn’t have an interest in travelling or enjoying food. She only concentrates on art creation, except on Saturdays and Sundays because she needs rest,” says Isao Takakura, managing director of the Yayoi Kusama Studio.
The works on display date from 1994 to 2013. A notable feature of her recent works is the use of bright colors and positive symbols such as flowers, puppets and pumpkins as seen in the 2012 piece, “With All My Love for the Tulips, I Pray Forever,” a room furnished with three large tulip installations dotted using colourful round stickers, and the 2013 dog figure in bright colours and dots.
Much of Kusama’s work has been marked by her obsessive compulsive disorder for which she was hospitalised and her desire to escape from a psychological condition – hallucinations.
Floating dots and net patterns have been created from hallucinations brought about by her neurotic disorder, which she has experienced since age 10.
Director Kim said she once asked the artist why she draws the same patterns in different numbers.
The first exhibition room features Kusama’s recent paintings, including the works featuring profiles, her signature dots, nets and eyes, drawn not quite so grotesquely as her 1994 black-and-white paintings featuring dotted lines that almost resemble microscopic images of plant stems or blood vessels.
Kusama invites viewers into her obsessive attraction to endless dots in the interactive work, “The Obliteration Room,” where viewers are given dot stickers to post onto any object in the all-white room – on furniture, a tent, the floor and ceiling.
“Kusama’s works transcend artistic boundaries and fields. They are something that anyone, even a child, can enjoy,” says Ota Hidenori, director of Ota Find Arts, a gallery in Tokyo that represents the artist.
 GOING DOTTY
- “A Dream I Dreamed” runs until November 3 at the Daegu Art Museum. For more information, visit www.DaeguArtMuseum.org.