Week One – Condensed
Yayoi Kusama is a Japanese contemporary artist whose focus on dots made her infamous and her work easily recognizable.
“My art is an expression of my life, particularly my mental illness.”
Yayoi Kusama
Kusama’s studio is located in the Shinjuku district in Tokyo. Her studio is decorated with a collection of her own personal belongings including her own collection of books and magazines to childhood photographs. Kusama also keeps photocopies of her auction sales within her studio as well. Stacks of her large-scale brightly coloured paints are organised around her studio. The majority of images from Kusama working in a studio shows her sitting in front of a large table with her canvas laid flat in front of her. Kusama now needs to sit while she creates her art because of her age but using a chair with wheels she’s able to quickly move and continue to work on her art from all angles. From photographs, large windows can be seen allowing large amounts of natural light to flood her studio. The feeling Kusama’s studio gives me is that it is very personal to her and is able to reflect her own personality to anyone walking through.
In 2017 Vice’s Dexter Thomas was banned from entering Kusama’s studio(1). Thomas was banned as Kusama had problems understanding his questions and reached the conclusion “[Thomas] did not understand her work”. It is also hinted within the article that Thomas was not allowed to come into contact with Kusama because of her unstable mental state and that she might have felt too uncomfortable to even finish the interview. This was very interesting to me as it made me consider if an artist’s studio could be considered their “safe space”. The more comfortable an artist feels in their studio the more venerable they are able to be with their work.
Resources
(1) – https://www.vice.com/en/article/ywnqxx/japans-most-famous-avant-garde-artist-banned-us-from-her-studio
