The exhibition, which is scheduled to run until July 28, features a collection of installations by the Polka Dot Queen of Avant-garde Art, Yayoi Kusama, which are on display in four different spaces.
One half of the courtyard is covered by Kusama’s legendary installation of 1,500 stainless steel balls entitled ‘Narcissus Garden’.
The 1,500 stainless steel balls of ‘Narcissus Garden’
The installation of nine huge red objects with white polka dots, ‘Guidepost to the New Space’ takes up the other half of the courtyard as well as the garage.
One of the most popular installations is ‘Dots Obsessions’, featuring four mirrored walls with red and white polka dot balloons, which occupies the main exhibition room and is sure to delight visitors.
The last space is dedicated to Kusama’s new installation ‘I’m Here, but Nothing’ where all the furniture, including a table, chairs, armchairs, shelves, and chest of drawers, as well as the sofa, bottles, television, mirror, refrigerator and rugs are dotted with a dizzying array of illuminated spots.
The disorienting two and three dimensional illusions in the ‘I’m Here, but Nothing’ installation
Yayoi Kusama is a Japanese avant-garde sculptor, painter and novelist who has received numerous awards including the Japanese National Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006 and the French Order of Arts and Letters in 2013, as well as the Order of the Rising Sun and Praemium Imperiale from Japan, both in 2006. She has also had many exhibitions of her widely celebrated work around the world and her obsessive repetitions and patterns of dots have become her trademark.
Kusama was unable to come to Vietnam for the exhibition but she sent a special message saying that “My deepest wish through my works exhibited here is to deliver love and peace to everyone in Hanoi who loves art”, which was delivered at the exhibition opening.
The exhibition marks the Japan – Vietnam Friendship Year 2013 and the 40th anniversary of the two countries’ bilateral diplomatic ties, and aims to promote cultural and artistic co-operation between the two nations, said Minister Hideo Suzuki from the Japanese Embassy in Vietnam.
