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Yayoi Kusama - Infinity Mirrored Rooms

The "Infinity Mirrored Rooms" are a series of works by Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama. They are immersive artworks incorporating the viewer and all sorts of artistic additions taken from Kusama’s incredible imagination.
Her recent piece, ‘Infinity Mirrored Room - Filled with the Brilliance of Life’, shown here at the Tate Modern in London, features a dark room with hundreds of twinkling LEDs, reflected in a shallow pool of water, with the walls and ceiling covered in mirrors. The galaxy-like lights are reflected in the room of mirrors. As a result, the viewer is transported into an otherworldly space that seems to go on endlessly. This work is incredibly immersive. The viewer travels through the space by following integrated walkways, they may shift and change position and view of the work in order to better see it and understand it. In contrast to the typical experience of viewing art in a gallery, Kusama’s work escapes the canvas, taking overseemingly huge amounts of space and including the viewer as they are seen within the art, due to the reflective surfaces.
Despite the mainstream appreciation of Yayoi Kusama, having had her work exhibited internationally, the artist lives in a mental institution and struggles with hallucinations and intense anxiety. I feel that this is communicated through her work, as the optically neverending space consumes the viewer, making them feel small within such a vast and all consuming galaxy of lights. At the same time, Kusama uses aspects of hallucination within her work, with spots multiplying and dominating her field of vision within such hallucinations, these spots are a focal point of her work, similar to the lights seen in this installation art piece. The viewer gets to experience a form of these hallucinations, seeing these small circular spots of light wherever they look, feeling all-consumed by the artwork.

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