WCC 2: Going Dotty

Written by Molly McCarthy

Something strange is happening in Wellington. As if victim to a rare variety of measles, the City Gallery is covered in large spots of every colour – a striking contrast to the sandstone colour scheme of the rest of Wellington’s Civic Square. Contrary to my claim in last month’s column to find culture in every nook and cranny, this month’s find was in fact quite hard to miss, and that wasn’t simply due to its vibrant exterior.

Reopened after an 11-month makeover, the City Gallery attracted a whopping 1500 visitors on its first day alone. So what’s all the fuss about? Well, aside from a very reasonable entry fee and free entry every second Wednesday, until early February the gallery is home to the art world’s very own Alice in Wonderland – Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama. Kusama’s exhibition, Mirrored Years, is certainly not what one expects to find in an art gallery. Said to be inspired by the vivid hallucinations she experienced as a result of mental illness, every work creates a wonderland for audiences to explore, just like Alice. If it weren’t for the barriers and the watchful gallery staff, it seems that one could be sucked right into Kusama’s creations.

And patrons have already been getting much closer to the works than they perhaps intended to – at least five people have been immersed, quite literally, into the exhibition’s most stunning piece, Fireflies on the Water. Constructed from mirrors, water and 150 coloured lights, Fireflies easily puts Auckland’s Franklin Road’s annual Christmas light display to shame. Allowed in for only 30 seconds at a time, groups of three are ushered into the small, entirely mirrored room and onto a jetty-like platform that extends over the water-covered floor. Once the door is shut, everything is forgotten. The ‘fireflies’, reflected to infinity on every wall, the ceiling and on the water below, are simply mesmerising – it is easy to see how one could fall off the narrow platform that sits just ten centimetres above the water.

Yet as otherworldly as these works seem, they are also inherently methodical. The 150 lights that make up Fireflies, for example, are each individually numbered. Despite seeming to reflect the random formations of fireflies in nature, Fireflies has been assembled in exactly the same way in each of its many instalments worldwide. There is certainly method to her madness. Dots Obsession – Day is a yellow room covered with black dots and filled with inflated shapes of the same spotty pattern, which are suspended from the roof. Its counterpart, Dots Obsession – Night, is almost its exact opposite. Located down the other end of a mirrored maze, this mirror image features the same shapes and colours, but yellow dots on a black background, rather than the eye-catching (and eye-hurting) colour scheme of Day. Indeed, Kusama has been known to go without sleep and food for days simply to finish one painting without interruption.

Once inside, one soon realises that the dots covering the exterior of the City Gallery aren’t quite as random as they may seem from the queue outside. The dots in fact make up a custom made design, Dots for Love and Peace, but more importantly, give audiences a very clear idea of what’s to come inside. For Kusama’s work, and life, it would seem, is almost entirely consumed by dots of all shapes and sizes. Even Untitled, drawn when Kusama was only nine, is largely made up of roughly sketched dots. In medicine spots are synonymous with infection; like measles and pox, the spots that appear in the City Gallery are infectious, contagious – they stretch around every corner, cover every surface – they have escaped Kusama’s mind, coated the canvas and proceed to suck their audiences in.

Now 80, Kusama directs the installation of her works from her home in Japan. In viewing her works however, which seem to be so much a part of her life, one is probably drawn closer to Kusama than could ever be achieved through meeting the artist in person. Mirrored balls that reflect every corner of the room; a 70s-themed lounge room, entirely normal apart from the UV lights and fluorescent dots that cover every surface; spotted tentacles that stretch out of the floor towards the viewer; a dinghy covered in silver phalluses, caught mid-row across a dark, painted sea. This is Yayoi Kusama.

Yayoi Kusama: Mirrored Years is at the City Gallery in Wellington’s Civic Square until 7th February 2010.