Yayoi Kusama

Taken from the Lovetown video

We’ve lost another extraordinary talent this week; maybe the most appreciated of all contemporary visual artists, Yayoi Kusama.

I was introduced to Yayoi’s work in the 90s by David Elliot, who at that time was running the Museum of Modern Art in Oxford.

Straightaway, I found myself very drawn to her world. Although the work at first looked childlike and innocent, you could feel the intensity that lay underneath. Pumpkins and polka dots, hallucinations and infinity rooms, her art was, in part, a means of managing her mental health.

I think it was also that depth that connected with so many millions of people all over the world, not unlike the work of Van Gogh.

I invited her to come to my studio in 1995 when we were creating Eve – one of the very first immersive CD Roms. Although she wasn’t well known, as she is today, I was delighted that she agreed to come and work with me on some ideas for that project and again later to collaborate on the video for a song called Lovetown. We created an Infinity Room for her, and she created a box with two illuminated polka dot spheres for us. I feel very lucky to have had the chance to work and spend time with her.

She was always dressed colourfully and, although very willing to help us try to create something new and different, she seemed half of this world and half of somewhere else and communication was not always easy. 

Her work and concepts were ripped off by Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg and Lucas Samaras amongst others in New York in the seventies, but she will always stand out to me as a totally unique artist and one of the very few giants of contemporary art.

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