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Narcissus GardenNarcissus Garden (Paris, 2010 installation) Courtesy Yayoi Kusama Studio Inc., Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo and Victoria Miro, London © Yayoi Kusama

Narcissus Garden

Yayoi Kusama. Original installation and performance 1966. Mirror balls.

Curator Note

"At the Venice Biennale, Kusama (uninvited) filled a lawn with 1,500 mirrored plastic balls and sold them to passersby for $2 each under a sign "Your Narcissism for Sale." The work creates an infinite field of reflections, forcing the viewer to confront their own vanity, while critiquing the commercialization of the art world."

Form

  • Installation of 1,500 shiny silver plastic (later steel) balls.
  • Reflective surfaces distort and multiply the environment.
  • kinetic (balls move/float in water versions).
  • Performance art element (selling the balls).
  • Site-specific (originally).

Function

  • To critique the art market and commodification.
  • To force the viewer to look at themselves (Narcissus).
  • To promote the artist (self-promotion).
  • To create an infinite, immersive environment.
  • To disrupt the elite Biennale.

Content

  • The Mirror: vanity, ego, selfie-culture precursor.
  • The Garden: Narcissus myth (drowned falling in love with reflection).
  • The Sales: "Art is a commodity like hot dogs."
  • Kusama in a kimono: exoticizing herself for sales.
  • Multiplicity/Infinity.

Context

  • Kusama was an outsider in the NYC male art world.
  • "Happening" / Performance art of the 60s.
  • She was stopped by officials for selling "art" like groceries.
  • Themes of mental illness (hallucinations of dots).
  • Global Contemporary precursor.