Yayoi Kusama's Fireflies on the Water, 2002 completely captures me... I want to be in that space, from the moment I wake to until after I fall asleep, so that I believe that I'm still in the space while i'm sleeping. Everything about the piece is wonderful to me, the colored orbs, the mirrored walls and ceilings, the title... For me the piece is about holding onto innocence and dreams of our youth. Maybe I feel i'm getting older; regretting past decisions, but I'm finding that I'm drawn to optimistic/nostaligic work more and more, and this piece captures both of those sentiments well for me. If it were possible to be sad and happy, optimistic about the future, and forlorn for the past all at the same time, somehow Fireflies on the Water is that for me.
sweet mercy, i just found out the bottom of "Fireflies" is WATER!!!!!!! JUST GOT COOLER!!!!! [via artgasm]
Artist Biography
Yayoi Kusama, b. March 22, 1929 in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture is a Japanese artist whose paintings, collages, soft sculptures, performance art and environmental installations all share an obsession with repetition, pattern, and accumulation. (She has described herself as an "obsessive artist".)
Kusama's work is based in Conceptual art and shows some attributes of feminism, minimalism, surrealism, Art Brut, pop art, and abstract expressionism, and is infused with autobiographical, psychological, and sexual content. Kusama is also a published novelist and poet, and has created notable work in film and fashion design. She has long struggled with mental illness.
On 12th Nov 2008 Christies New York sold a work by her for $5.1 million, a record for a living female artist.
[the wikipedia]
"I just ran into photographer Alice Wheeler on the street, and she delivered a great speech. All artists are either obsessive or funky, she said. She is on the funky side. This means the artist works when moved, and is moved to work often enough to be an artist.... This means the artist is not a professional, with expensive equipment and working hours and a tendency to take up a lot of room. Alice says look for more of this work now that the recession is here and settled in."
- Jen Graves, Seattle art critic about Alice Wheeler, Seattle area photographer/artist on SLOG, "VISUAL ART All Artists Are Either Obsessive Or Funky", 8-25-10
"Writing about serial killers does not make a writer a killer, nor does writing about women’s feet make one a fetishist. Unless you do it all the damn time, repeatedly, whether or not there’s lube handy. You’re a bold foot fetishist, Quentin, and may your giant balls be walked on until you cry."
- Mike Brotherton, American hard science fiction writer and astronomer, "Obsessive Artists and Tarantino’s Foot Fetish", 01-08-10
"Everything is beautiful. Pop is everything." [obligatory]
- Andy Warhol, American Pop artist.
"I am for an art that takes its forms from the lines of life itself, that twists and extends and accumulates and spits and drips and is heavy and coarse and blunt and sweet and stupid as life itself."
- Claes Oldenburg, Swedish sculptor
Gleaming Lights of the Souls
Fireflies on the Water
Dots Obsession - New Century, 2000
Baby Carriage, 1964
Infinity Room 1 (QTVR link)
Infinity Room 2 (QTVR link)
Link to an interview with the artist or a review
Link to gallery representing artist - Gagosian
Link to artist website
No comments:
Post a Comment