Yayoi Kusama is an old woman in her nineties. She is also one of Japan's
greatest living artists. She has many talents. She paints, performs, and
designs creative spaces. But the one thing that most of her works have in
common is dots!
Kusama was born in Nagano, Japan, in 1929. She loved painting from
an early age. But her parents did not support her passion. Her mother would
even tear up her drawings, which—lacking art materials—
she did in mud on old sacks. During this period,
Kusama had a vision that would inspire her career
forever. She dreamed she was in a field of talking
flowers. She saw their heads, like little dots,
fading into the distance. She felt that she was
vanishing into this field of infinite dots, too.
In 1958, Kusama sensed the most exciting art was happening in the
United States. So she moved to New York. There she became a pioneer
in the development of performance art. She became famous for painting
naked people with colorful dots!
In the 1970s, however, Kusama began suffering from mental illness,
so she returned to Japan. She checked herself into a mental hospital
and has lived there voluntarily ever since. But she continues to create
amazing art. Today she is best known for her creative environments,
which she calls "Infinity Mirror Rooms." These rooms are filled with her
signature dots. She creates them by installing colorful LED lights into
spaces full of mirrors. Inside, it is as if the space and the lights go on
forever. Standing there you feel how she must have felt during her vision
as a child—lost in, and at one with, infinity.
草間彌生是位年逾90 歲的年長女性，她堪稱是日本現存最偉大的藝術家之一。她身懷多項才華，身兼畫家、表演藝術家和創意空間設計師的角色。而她多數藝術品的共同特點，就是「圓點」！
草間彌生生於1929 年的日本長野，從小就熱愛鉛筆素描與使用顏料繪畫。然而，她的父母卻不支持她的熱忱。草間彌生的母親甚至會撕毀女兒的畫作，所以在缺乏美術素材的情況下，她只好用泥巴當顏料，畫在舊麻袋上。草間彌生在此難熬的時期，看見了鼓舞她畢生以藝術家為業的幻影。某日她夢見自己站在一個會說話的花田裡。眾花一開口，她就看到花朵的頭部，像小圓點般的後退至遠方。並且感到自己同樣消失在這片以無限圓點組成的花田。
1958 年，草間彌生察覺，多數令人為之一亮的藝術風格均於美國誕生，因此她遷居至紐約。她在紐約成為了表演藝術發展的先鋒，並以鮮豔圓點彩繪裸體人物而聲名大噪！
然而，草間彌生於1970年代飽受精神疾病之苦而返回日本。她自行住進精神病院，從此自願待在那裏。不過，她仍持續創造令人驚豔的作品。如今，她最廣為人知的創意空間藝術就是「無限鏡屋」，裡面遍布她的經典圓點圖案。她將彩色LED燈裝設於充滿鏡面的空間裡。在裡頭，彷彿一切空間和燈光皆可無限延伸。站在那裡面，可體驗到她孩提時代看到夢中幻影時的感受，彷彿永無止盡的忘我空間。 |
