INHALE is a cultural platform where artists are presented, where great projects are given credit and readers find inspiration. Think about Inhale as if it were a map: we can help you discover which are the must-see events all over the world, what is happening now in the artistic and cultural world as well as guide you through the latest designers’ products. Inhale interconnects domains that you are interested in, so that you will know all the events, places, galleries, studios that are a must-see. We have a 360 degree overview on art and culture and a passion to share.
Victoria Miro is delighted to present a new body of sculptures and paintings by Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama dedicated to her iconic depiction of pumpkins.
The exhibition, which opens on 16 September 2014 comprises of two elements: the main gallery will house a new body of paintings and large scale mosaic pumpkins which will be on show until 4 October; whilst a major new series of bronze sculptures will be on display in the gallery’s unique water garden until 20 December. The bronze pumpkins have been two years in the making and mark the first time the artist has worked with bronze on such a large scale.
Since her earliest formative years, in a family who made their living cultivating plant seeds, Kusama has been fascinated by the natural world. She has always had an affinity with nature, particularly vegetal and floral life, but the pumpkin continues to occupy a special place in her iconography and is a motif she has returned to repeatedly throughout her career.
The plant appears in some of her paintings and works on paper as early as 1948. After her return from New York to Japan in the 1970s she rediscovered the theme, and began making serial works depicting the pumpkin in various media: paintings; prints; sculpture; installation; and environmental works. She has made tiny pumpkins no bigger than a key ring, and monumental pumpkins that dwarf the viewer with their scale. She has placed pumpkins in box structures and in mirror rooms, and used the
distinctive knobbly patterning of their skins as inspiration for her unique dot-patterned paintings and textiles. In 1993 pumpkins formed part of her presentation in the Japanese Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. In 1994 her iconic exterior sculpture of a large yellow and black pumpkin was sited at the Benesse Art Site Naoshima, an island in Japan’s inland sea dedicated to displaying art within nature.
The artist has a strong personal identification with the pumpkin, and has described her images of them as a form of selfportraiture. She admires pumpkins for their hardiness and everyday quality, as well as for their unique and pleasing physical qualities. She has written:
“‘Pumpkin head’ was an epithet used to disparage ugly, ignorant men, and the phrase ‘Put eyes and a nose on a pumpkin’ evoked a pudgy and unattractive woman. It seems that pumpkins do not inspire much respect. But I was enchanted by their charming and winsome form. What appealed to me most was the pumpkin’s generous unpretentiousness. That and its solid spiritual base” (Yayoi Kusama, Infinity Net: The Autobiography of Yayoi Kusama, trans. Ralph McCarthy, London 2011, p.76).
Yayoi Kusama in Mirror Room (Pumpkin) (1991)
Yayoi Kusama, Pumpkin Chess Set 2003, hand-painted porcelain, leather, timber. Courtesy of RS&A Ltd, London.
“YAYOI KUSAMA: New Sculptures and Recent Paintings”
Installation view
Photo by Douglas M. Parker Studio
“YAYOI KUSAMA: New Sculptures and Recent Paintings”
Installation view
Photo by Douglas M. Parker Studio
- via victoria-miro.com
Leave a Reply
19:01
18:01
12:01
02:01
01:01
19:01
18:01
18:01
17:01
The application period for Spring 2015 Artist in Residence program is now open. 33OC seeks proposals from international professional artists interested in working within the Toffia environment for a one month period. 33OC Artist Residency program was developed to become a space & community where international artists can share places, experiences and sensibilities. The aim […]
Private studio retreats in a collaborative atmosphere for Spring 2015. Grin City Collective welcomes applications from artists of all disciplines at all stages of their career for residencies in rural Iowa, USA. Residents receive individual housing and studio space and may elect to participare in one of the following outreach programs: Social Practice Project: 1st Block […]
maumau writer-in-residence program the program aims to create an atmosphere for writers in which they can work isolated from everyday life while experiencing the inspiring nature of istanbul. please check the information document before you submit your application form to info@maumauworks.com with a topic “writer-in-residence program”. please specify the the residency you apply on the topic which residency […]
Applications are now being accepted for month long residencies at the Bellagio Center. Deadline: December 1, 2014 The Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center’s mission is to promote innovation, creativity, and impact-oriented solutions to critical global problems. Residencies and conferences at the Center, located in northern Italy, support work in the Foundation’s key issue areas: Advance Health, […]
Public Recordings: 8 DAYS IV – A Gathering of Choreographers An intensive encounter open to Canadian contemporary choreographers. 8 DAYS is an intensive encounter open to Canadian contemporary choreographers. The gathering values curiosity, questioning and reflection on how we work in order to deepen choreographic practices. The ongoing 8 DAYS project addresses a need for […]
Body Becoming ANIMA CASA RURAL ARTIST RESIDENCY Thematic Residency “Body Becoming.” BODY BECOMING : The body figures as the most important place upon which many of our stories play out. From the Greeks who admired and celebrated the nude, to the Confucian Koreans who covered it eroticizing only small amounts of visible skin, the body […]
Countryside Residency for International Artists in Rome, Italy Best of both worlds in this residency in the countryside just 40-minutes by train from vibrant Rome! Get inspired by this artist residency in the countryside of Rome! The non-profit organization ‘c.r.e.t.a. rome’ offers an international self-funded residency program in the countryside of Rome, Italy. The Italian […]
