KUSAMA: COSMIC NATURE
Bolts of Joy + Exuberance
By Ruth J. Katz
Upon entering the New York Botanical Garden, I could spy, across the verdant landscape, incongruous, gaily colored, polka-dotted trees! Certainly, Gaea did not grace the Earth with vermillion foliage, adorned with giant, snow-white orbs.
But, indeed, another earthly goddess had created this splendor: The subversive culprit is Japanese avant-garde artist Yayoi Kusama, whose works always elicit squeals of delight. Her fanciful, larger-than-life vegetables, flowers, and organically shaped sculptures punctuate the Garden’s 240-acre, lush landscape with gleeful liveliness. The colossal, wrapped trees, called The Ascension of the Polka Dots, line the Garden Way and are but one of the dozen or so installations you’ll revel in experiencing.
Right after the entryway, you encounter the Flower Obsession greenhouse. Visitors are invited to enter this glasshouse and plaster a coral-toned, daisy-like flower-sticker anywhere inside—furniture, windows, floor, wherever. By the time the exhibit ends this Fall, the structure will be awash in jolly, floral offerings. Kusama underscores the concepts of obliteration, infinity, and eternity with these overlapping blooms engulfing the greenhouse. Worth sharing: You will need the Gardens and Gallery Pass to do this. The ticket for the indoor spaces costs a tad more, but that is the only way to see the exhibits in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, the LuEsther T. Mertz Library Building, and the Visitor Center Gallery.
PUMPKIN FAVORITES
The staggeringly inventive Pumpkins Screaming About Love Beyond Infinity is an immersive experience. It is mounted in the Visitor Center Gallery and comprises a large glass cube, ablaze with acrylic, internally-lit pumpkins, against mirrored surfaces. They reflect an infinity of glowing polka-dotted spheres. It is a signature style for Kusama, who commented: “When I see pumpkins, I cannot efface the joy of them being my everything, nor the awe I hold them in.” Dozens of pumpkins, in varying sizes, slowly brighten from within with LED lights and then gently fade on a staggered timer.
Another cherished pumpkin is the Dancing Pumpkin, a monumental (10 feet by 16 feet) sculpture installed on the Conservatory grounds. It is an open-sided structure, constructed from urethane paint on bronze, in an audacious lemony tone, accented with various-size, ebony dots. It is built with tentacle limbs, so visitors can walk through and around it, all the while smiling, I am certain.
AN INSIDE LOOK
Kusama’s floral artworks are equally as joyful. Inside the Palms of the World Gallery in the Conservatory are several exhibits, including My Soul Blooms Forever, a garden (planted in a small pond under the dome), which features colossal polka-dotted flowers, constructed from stainless steel and painted in dramatically vivid colors.
Adjacent to the dome is Starry Pumpkin, an enchanting mosaic sculpture that is counterpoint to the dashing flowers. It is constructed from fiberglass-reinforced plastic and resin, covered in mosaics, in flickering gold and scarlet. It is secreted in a mini-garden meadow, which was created by the Garden’s horticulturalists. Kusama speaks of her youth, recounting, “I parted a row of zinnias and reached in to pluck the pumpkin from its vine. It immediately began speaking to me in a most animated manner.” To fashion the perfect environment for this luminescent work, the staff recreated the meadow of Kusama’s memory; the sculpture emerges triumphantly from wildflowers, grasses, and willows: The visitor experiences this pumpkin as the artist did.
There is a lively exhibition of painted-metal mammoth flowers in the nearby Conservatory Courtyard Hardy Pool, the exuberantly colored and highly patterned sculpture, Hymn of Life—Tulips. Additionally, do not miss the massive, single blossom, I Want to Fly the Universe and the Narcissus Garden. On display in the Library Building are sketches, paintings, and additional sculptures, including the stunning Life 2015.
This jubilant exhibit will be something you’ll remember from Life 2021!
For more information on Kusama: Cosmic Nature, visit nybg.org. The exhibit continues through October 31st; reservations are a must
