Asian Studies Program, Art History and Visual Culture Program, and Japanese Studies Present
Mirrored-Environments: Yayoi Kusama in Context, 1965–1969
Thursday, April 24, 2014
Olin Humanities, Room 102
A Lecture by Midori Yamamura
Yayoi Kusama (b. 1929) is one of Japan's best-known artists. During her 2013 David Zwiner exhibition, enthusiastic viewers lined up for hours to experience her immersive mirror-lined environments. Of the postwar Japanese artists, Kusama has been a popular subject. However, due to her autobiographical narrative of mental illness, which she began dictating in 1975, and her voluntary residence in a mental health facility since 1977, her work has been predominantly interpreted as a symptomatic of her illness. Instead of relying on her autobiography, this talk will give a fresh look at Kusama through an object-based historiography, examining the initial development of Kusama's mirrored-environments between 1965 and 1969, against the backdrop of her milieu that I carefully reconstruct from new archival research to discuss how she established her anti-conformist art against late capitalist society.
For more information, call 845-758-7158, or e-mail [email protected].
Location: Olin Humanities, Room 102