Infinity

When I last checked it was booked out for the remainder of the year. Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Room was a hugely popular installation at the Tate Modern. One of her largest installations- it opened on 11th May 2023, but people and the press are still talking about it to this day as a must see. Of course I had to go, and today was finally my turn.

I enter the first room which is covered in photos of Kusama and her work through the ages. At 94 years old currently, Kusama is the definition of ‘age is just a number.’ yes there were a lot of photos. I move through to the main hall. A massive queue stands before me. Well, good things come to those who wait…I hope.

In Kusama’s visual hallucinations. she becomes obliterated by repeated dots. With her infinity rooms she invites us to share this self-obliteration (how decent of her!). The dots humble you, they surround and engulf you making it hard to tell where you end and the rest of the world begins. Usually when one experiences art, there is a clear distinction between that person and the artwork. Kusama confuses this intentionally. To view her room she asks us to become part of it.

“Our earth is only one polka dot among a million stars in the cosmos…When we obliterate nature and our bodies with polka dots, we become part of the unity of our environment.”- Yayoi Kusama

I eagerly wait in the line to enter. It feels like hours have passed when we are finally allowed in. Of course I have seen pictures and so I some-what know what to expect. The actual experience is nothing how I expected. One simply has to be there. The sheer levels of disorientation, wonderment and awe are on another level. Time runs out, I can’t even recall if it went slowly or quickly. Time seems to warp in there. I leave the room and I am hurled back into reality. Like being plucked from the womb or wakening from a deep trance.

Kusama is very effective in what she wants to achieve. When standing in the infinity room, one is humbled. The sense of individuality and even your physical body is removed by the mesmerising “infinite” dots and mirrors. They are all that exist for the short time you stand there, at one with the environment. Absolutely magical.