CHICAGO, IL.- WNDR Museum, Chicagos original immersive art and technology experience, located in the citys West Loop, today announced the U.S. debut of the yellow Dots Obsession, a three-story immersive infinity installation by the globally iconic Yayoi Kusama, on Friday, May 12. Featuring a series of floating yellow and black polka dots alongside walk-in and peep-in installations, Dots Obsession will fill WNDRs atrium and transport visitors into Kusamas obsession with polka dots, repetition, celestial bodies and the experience of the infinite.
Since my childhood, I have always made works with polka dots. Earth, moon, sun and human beings all represent dots; a single particle among billions, Yayoi Kusama has said.
The collaboration between Louis Vuitton and Kusama, first in 2012 and then again in 2023, has further expanded attention and affection of the 94-year-old renowned artist. While Yayoi Kusama fans in New York City are anticipating her upcoming May 2023 show featuring new work at David Zwirner, the presentation of yellow Dots Obsession at WNDR Museum offers the unique opportunity for an up-close and personal experience of the artists vision.
Dots Obsession was created by Yayoi Kusama in 2008 and has been exhibited around the world. After making its debut in London, the work has appeared in Lithuania, Singapore and Australia, and was most recently on view at Museum MACAN in Jakarta, Indonesia in 2018. This will be the first time that yellow Dots Obsession will be installed in the United States.
The installation of Dots Obsession furthers WNDR Museums commitment to making fine art accessible and approachable, notably featuring the Midwests only Kusama Infinity Room, Lets Survive Forever, since WNDRs inception in 2018. Serving as a longtime centerpiece of its flagship Chicago location, Lets Survive Forever is slated to close at WNDR Museum Chicago on April 30 before traveling to WNDR Boston which opens this summer at 500 Washington Street.
Created by Kusama in 2017 and considered to be one of her masterpieces, Lets Survive Forever features stainless steel balls suspended from the ceiling and arranged on the floor; an enclosed column within the room offers yet another mirrored environment accessible through peepholes. A sense of infinity is offered through the play of reflections between the circular shapes and the surrounding mirrors on the rooms walls.
Yayoi Kusama is perhaps the most prolific and celebrated living artist with a truly inspiring history of creative genius, and we are committed to the idea that her work should be experienced by the public as a source of awe and inspiration, said WNDR Museum Creative Director David Allen. At WNDR Museum, we are disrupting the sense of exclusivity and distance that too often has marked the experience of art, and we are redefining the museum as a source of engagement and inspirational playfulness in that spirit, were thrilled to bring these iconic Kusama infinity room installations to WNDR guests in Chicago and across the country.
In addition to Dots Obsession in Chicago and Lets Survive Forever soon to be arriving in Boston, visitors to WNDR Museums recently opened Seattle location will find Starry Pumpkin (2016), an iconic work of Kusamas pumpkin sculpture series.
Born and raised in Japan, Yayoi Kusama emerged as an artist during the Vietnam War era and continues to make work that reaches diverse audiences worldwide. Throughout her prolific practice spanning over six decades, Kusama has consistently created artwork about repetition and the concept of infinity. In 1965, Kusama produced her first Infinity Mirror Room. This marked a move from the material repetition found in the artists paintings and sculptures to the illusion of infinite space using mirrors. Since then, Kusama has made more than twenty unique rooms.