An Exploration of Infinite Light and Pattern with Yayoi Kusama

The exhibition "Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors," organized by the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington D.C., features six of Japanese pop artist’s mirrored rooms as well as sculptures, collages, and paintings. Kusama, 88 years old, is known for her exploration of infinity using light, color, and pattern in dynamic spatial configurations. On display through May 14, the show—already a social media sensation due to its selfie-friendly aesthetics—presents the largest number of Kusama infinity rooms shown as part of the same exhibit. It will then travel until October 2018 with stops at the Seattle Art Museum, Los Angeles’ The Broad, the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the High Museum in Atlanta.

After moving from Japan to New York in 1957, Kusama quickly became a fixture in the abstract expressionist movement of the 1960s, where she participated in performance art and developed her first infinity room. As evidenced by much of her work, Kusama was influenced by the activist and counterculture movements—free love, feminism, pacifism—of the time. Kusama returned to Japan in the 1970s, and has since voluntarily resided at a hospital for the mentally ill—though she still works at her nearby studio.

For this show, the infinity rooms are interspersed with Kusama’s other work, including tuber-covered furniture and sculptures, as well as paintings and videos. Due to the popularity of the exhibition, visitors must wait in individual lines for each room, which can accommodate up to three people at a time for around 30 seconds. In the first week alone, more than 14,000 visitors attended the show, which opened on Feb. 23. Each room is described below.