M+ Museum｜Admission fee starts on Saturday, Yayoi Kusama exhibition creates three works to explore life and death

The M+ Museum in the West Kowloon Cultural District will celebrate its first anniversary on Saturday (12th) and will start charging admission fees.

A special exhibition of Yayoi Kusama: 1945 to the Present will be held on the same day, which is the largest retrospective exhibition of Yayoi Kusama outside of Japan in Asia.

This exhibition showcases 203 works by Yayoi Kusama, 3 of which are specially created for M+ by her, including "Pumpkin", "The Obsession of the Dot - Longing for Heaven's Love", and "Death of a Nerve".

Zheng Daolian, the co-curator of the exhibition, said that it is expected that the number of admissions will exceed 6 figures, but he admits that the change from free to paid for M+ is a different reality, so it is difficult to predict the actual number of admissions, but I believe that many citizens will still come here. View the exhibition.

Deputy Director and Chief Curator of M+, and Co-curator of Yayoi Kusama: 1945 to Present (1st from left).

(Photo by Zheng Zifeng)

In response to this exhibition, Yayoi Kusama created three special works, including "Pumpkin", "The Obsession of the Dot - Desire for Heaven's Love", and "Death of the Nerve", all three works are exhibited for the first time.

Among them, "Pumpkin" is the only work exhibited in the museum's free underground space, and the public can enjoy the work without paying.

"Pumpkin" is divided into two artworks, one of which is a tall and slender pumpkin, and the other is relatively lazy, as if two different types of people are talking.

In addition, pumpkin is also Kusama's iconic work. For her, pumpkin is a unique living body, with vitality and vitality in mediocrity, and it is also a "source of life".

"Pumpkin" is the only work exhibited in the free underground space of the museum, in other words, the public can enjoy the work without paying.

(Photo by Zheng Zifeng)

As for "Dot's Obsession - Longing for Heaven's Love", the mirror room is filled with many waves with black wavy dots. With an immersive exhibition method, Kusama Yayoi's "infinite" life is brought out. philosophy.

Tan Xuening, curator of visual arts at M+, said that unlike the general "Infinite" mirror room, this mirror room not only repeats horizontally, but also vertically, so the images will be repeated horizontally and vertically.

She revealed that even Kusama's group was amazed at how challenging the process was when assembling the exhibit.

The last work Yayoi Kusama created specifically for this exhibition is "Death of a Nerve", which is very similar to her 1976 work of the same name, reflecting her extension of the concepts of "accumulation" and "infinite net".

The new works are like the nervous system of a large-scale network, with colorful "nerves" as the main axis, which are different from the black and white and melancholy moods of the old works, but bring out the hope of life, like the moment of life regeneration.

Tan Xuening believes that the work brings out Yayoi Kusama's love for life and the universe at this time, and Yayoi Kusama also specially wrote a poem for the work:

my broken nerves

after a long silence

From past to present to future

Luo sees the love of the universe

Before I knew it, it had gathered in my body and flowed through my body

Those moments of regeneration of dead nerves that have lost their color

Dressed in beautiful vibrant colors

spread to eternity

To the universe at the end of the void

Excerpt from Yayoi Kusama's "The Nerve That Caused Me to Die"

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"Yayoi Kusama: 1945 to the Present" is the first special exhibition of M+ since its opening one year ago. The exhibition will start from the chronological order and thematically, show Yayoi Kusama's works from the earliest to the latest in her creative career, and examine her work in Japan. , the United States and Europe and other places of artistic creation.

The exhibition is divided into six themes: infinity, accumulation, total connection, bio-universe, death, and the power of life, covering works in a variety of media, including painting, installation, sculpture, drawing, collage, moving image and archival materials.

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The exhibition features Yayoi Kusama's self-portrait "Leading the Line", including her 1950 painting of her own face in her early 20s, when she transformed herself into a creature in polka dots, surrounded by pink petals, with a pink flower underneath. The lips show that Yayoi Kusama no longer presented himself as a person in the early period, but a sunflower-like plant, and its iconic polka dots and reticulations have emerged when he was young, and related symbols are more slowly lead to its later creation.

Tickets will be on sale from October 13th. The regular price ticket is 240 yuan, and the special ticket is 150 yuan. Ticket holders can visit all exhibition halls in the museum.

The exhibition will last for nearly half a year and will end on May 14 next year.

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