Kusama and the crowds

I’ve just received an email from the National Gallery of Victoria proudly boasting that 120,000 people have visited the Yayoi Kusama exhibition in its first month.  Great news for the gallery I guess, but not so for the viewer.  

(Geoff Harrison)

Thinking that things may be quieter between Christmas and New Year (and the fact that my NGV Member’s free ticket was about to expire), I decided to pay the exhibition a visit.  Big mistake - I could hardly move in the place.  We were hurried through the installations in 20 seconds flat which was a raw deal for those non members who had to pay $38 for the privilege.  

(Geoff Harrison)

There was an almost circus atmosphere in the gallery which I’m not sure is consistent with the overall theme of the exhibition.  Kusama’s work seems to derive from disturbing hallucinations she experienced during childhood, including seeing the space around her covered in polka dots and nets.  As no one else around her sensed these things, this had an alienating impact on her.  

(Geoff Harrison)

Given that she had the ability to draw well from a young age, it was inevitable the she would dedicate her life to art in order to explore these visions and coexist with them.  And given the vastness of her output, it’s inevitable that there is some unevenness in her work,  but so crowded was the gallery that I found it impossible to fully appreciate Kusama’s vision and motivations.  It simply became a “happening.”  Wait a few weeks, I reckon.  It finishes on 21st April.