MCGILL SPF10/11 RESEARCH: Artist: Yayoi Kusama

I am mostly attracted to Yayoi Kusama because she is literally insane, and has an extremely interesting character, which is what makes her art. Her art is about herself, and what she sees. My art is about myself, and what I see. Her art is her own form of therapy, much like mine. I think the most interesting art is often not about the worlds problems, or wars, or politics, but about one person, and their one life, and their unique vision the tells a story entirely about themselves. I think this has a lot to do with the basics of communication, and how it's much easier to get through to someone by sitting them down and making your message personal, by attaching a face and narrowing a concept by putting it in a tunnel unaffected by outside opinions. But she is able to communicate because is the end her obsessions often align with others'. A lot can be learned from this hugely successful Japanese artist the voluntarily lives in a mental hospital. She said "If it was not for art, I would have killed myself a long time ago."

Biography: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yayoi_Kusama

Quotes:

(extracted from interview with index magazine)

MIDORI: What are your future plans then, generally speaking?
YAYOI: I want to live two or three hundred years to do all the things I want to do. I really need more time to think. I want to explore myself — my aesthetics, my relation to the world.

"The art that grows out of my canvases forms an environment, aspires to build a new stage on our time, involving the audience who suffer from the same obsessions as mine." (From Kusama's novel Manhattan Suicide Addict)