Coolness Captured

Yayoi Kusama was born in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture. Kusama has experienced hallucinations and severe obsessive thoughts since childhood, often of a suicidal nature. She claims that as a small child she suffered severe physical abuse by her father.

Early in Kusama’s career, she began covering surfaces (walls, floors, canvases, and later, household objects and naked assistants) with the polka dots that would become a trademark of her work. The vast fields of polka dots, or “infinity nets,” as she called them, were taken directly from her hallucinations.

Today she lives, by choice, in a mental hospital in Tokyo, where she has continued to produce work since the mid-1970s. Her studio is a short distance from the hospital. “If it were not for art, I would have killed myself a long time ago,” Kusama is often quoted as saying.

I always think it’s amazing when someone can find an outlet for their insanity and use it in a creative way. It’s incredible what you can get away with in the name of art. I love her work and can relate to the polka dot obsession.