yayoi kusama obliterates a room with a ‘virus’ of beautiful red flowers

‘I saw the entire room, my entire body, and the entire universe covered with red flowers'.

zach andrews edited by nina azzarello April 24, 2018 2 min

yayoi kusama’s latest exploration of obliteration — flower obsession — has been on display at the NGV triennial in melbourne. the installation began with a relatively normal, plainly-furnished room and was quickly destroyed by a ‘virus’ of beautiful, red flowers.

yayoi kusama NGV triennial
photo by eugene hyland

the interactive work is in reference to one of kusama’s earliest experiences with infinity. one day, when she was very young, her child-eyes looked around a kitchen and took interest in a table cloth patterned with red flowers. then came the hallucinations.

yayoi kusama NGV triennial
photo by eugene hyland

‘I looked up to see that the ceiling, the windows, and the columns seemed to be plastered with the same red floral pattern,’ says yayoi kusama, ‘I saw the entire room, my entire body, and the entire universe covered with red flowers, and in that instant my soul was obliterated…this was not an illusion but reality itself.’

yayoi kusama NGV triennial
photo by eugene hyland

at the NGV triennial — a program which received a nomination for THE DESIGN PRIZE 2018 — visitors were invited to paint this existential reality for all to see, applying a seemingly-infinite pattern, one flower at a time. naturally, viewers flocked to the NGV installation, hoping to see what kusama sees. flower after faux-flower, they destroyed the space, covering couches, toilets, windows, ceilings, and columns with an unescapable, red repetition.

yayoi kusama NGV triennial
photo by eugene hyland

yayoi kusama NGV triennial
photo by sam wong

yayoi kusama NGV triennial
photo by eugene hyland