Yayoi Kusama; Infinity Rooms, Polka Dots and One Incredible Night

Part I

It was a dark and stormy night…in February; in Atlanta. Just outside the High Museum we waited; waited for tickets. This was a night and darkness that seemed would never end. The waiting that started for myself and a number of others began around midnight Thursday Feb. 7^th. This would continue into daylight Friday morning (the 8^th) around nine thirty. 

In the course of the night we would face wind, rain, cold, the dark and no available toilets. We would have to be resourceful on all accounts. There were people in tents, sleeping bags, blankets, coats and hoodies. I was arrayed in a sweater, scarf and blanket with snacks, books and an MP3 player. There have of course been worse conditions but really; for tickets to an art exhibit it was unusual. For the record; I had waited outside the Metropolitan in New York with two of my grandkids just the year before in below zero wind chills to see Michelangelo. These temperatures we faced now were at least above freezing; a little.

About the time conditions seemed at their worst; it was almost as if the darkness would not end. One of my fellow, brave and generous art lovers appeared in front of me offering coffee. She was a Heaven send. Her name was Veronica and we would eventually buy scalped tickets for a reasonable eighty dollars each. 

Part II

The exhibit we were dedicated to seeing was Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Rooms. This phenomenal exhibit had started at the Hirshhorn in Washington DC and played in several major cities around the country and in Canada. 

Yayoi Kusama is one of the most fascinating and creative artist’s working today. Her career began in a major way when the Japanese born artist came to America and became a part of the 60's Pop/Happening Scene. Polka Dots are something of a main stay for her as she covers everything from sculptures to film, fashion and paintings with different expanding and ever changing dot patterns.  She befriended and in many ways competed with the greats of the period like Larry Rivers and Andy Warhol for publicity and space. Her zeal and exuberant work ethic led her to a nervous breakdown. She to this day lives in a mental institution where she checks herself out and in daily to work in her nearby studio.

The Infinity Mirror Rooms are among her greatest intellectual and artistic gifts to the world. They are marvels that the viewer is limited to seeing in 30 seconds intervals. Like the finest gourmet servings a small bit is savored with a much larger delight and relish than an unlimited, gratuitous buffet.  

Kusama’s work has been meaningful for viewers from around the nation and the world that came like myself to Atlanta for a life time’s opportunity. I was able to meet enthusiastic visitors from New Orleans, to Pittsburg to Paris at “The High.”  I had traveled from the tip of South Western Virginia, across the Carolinas and into Georgia myself. It was worth every bit of what it took for me to behold the mastery and spectacular vision of Yayoi Kusama. 

A Video Report from The News Hour

Hey Veronica;

It was fabulous meeting you at the Kusama Exhibition in Atlanta. As you said while waiting overnight for tickets; “...this is (was) a Great Adventure!”  I arrived late that afternoon and we didn’t have a chance to touch base. If you’re reading this: thanks again for “the Best and Warmest Cup of Coffee” I’m likely to ever have. I hope someday, to be able to return the favor and meet for a coffee and a doughnut.

All the Best;

James

jartistt@yahoo.com

Ian Cheng: Emissary in the Squat of Gods

One measure of good art is that it engages you into becoming part of a conversation that began with a given creator speaking through a particular medium of choice. Such a piece then grows with comprehension and involvement as we become engrossed. The work often takes on a life of it’s own and we are in turn transformed within the process.  Ian Cheng is an artist who does all of the for-mentioned as he welcomes the viewer into his universe and goes beyond to uncharted places.

Cheng began his artistic journey as a video story teller but wanted to take his work to a place not yet quite charted. He focused on a new video language that depended not on narrative but on something more akin to artificial intelligence.  Ian Cheng’s Animation Simulations are mutating, evolving algorithms that act, interact and exist within worlds that constantly and unpredictably change as they flow in real time with elements playing in unison and against each other.    

It was as a portion of an exhibition “Suspended Animation” at The Hirshhorn in Washington DC that was my introduction to this artist whose work I would come to revere; Ian Cheng. Other artists were featured including Helen Martin, Ed Atkins and Josh Kline; all impressive. Cheng was the stand out. His revolutionary piece “Emissary in the Squat of Gods” was on view where I stopped to take it in and to see just what was going on with this wall projection complete with sound, light, nuance and intrigue. 

The characters seemed to be villagers in a minimally technological society placed on a rugged hill top and viewed from a distance giving the impression of looking through the eyes of an anthropological perspective. The scene; even though it seemed sedentary at the onset was actually slowly rotating as if on an axis. The characters were definitely responding in an unscripted manner and there was a (What will happen next?) feel to the visible actions.  There was also; after an extended amount of viewing time, a changing of the light from twilight into night and greater darkness. This was an amazing something to witness. I could easily imagine the figures of the simulation becoming sentient if indeed they weren’t at this time already.

Ian Cheng’s work lies eerily at the intersection between art, technology, the fantastic and myth. Cheng; an artist squarely in his formative years promises an unlimited foray into the visible and the invisible. We’ll take the journey with him. Where does he emerge? Time… is our only teller.