A Movie “Kusama: Infinity” 9/21/18

September 21, 2018

Yayoi Kusama, a 89 years old Japanese artist, is the top-selling female artist in the world. Her exhibitions are often sold-out. She speaks in Japanese in this movie and I hope the audience can feel the nuances in her Japanese in the subtitle. Her speaking manner is quite unique, but totally sincere. Kusama went through a hard journey from a conservative family (but wealthy) in Japan to a radical life in USA in 1960’s. She overcame countless odds to bring her artistic vision to the world. For the last 40 years she has been living in the mental institution in Tokyo, and commutes to her studio everyday. She has been well taken care by people around her. But for decades, her work pushed boundaries that often alienated her from the art world.

Before coming to US she was an underdog against everything in Japan, a life in a dysfunctional family that discouraged her from a creative ambitions, sexism in the art establishment, and mental illness in a culture where that was a particular shame. After coming back to Japan from US in 70’s she was also alienated because of her scandalous activities. Now she is a “Princess of Polka Dots”, and has achieved the international fame. She has her own museum in her home town (she could not go back to her home town for many years because people simply did not accept her radical attitude). I love her arts and I was deeply moved by her sincere talk in the movie. When I went to see this movie at Laemmle there were only 3 of us… I hope many more people would see it.