In anticipation of next spring’s Honolulu Biennial — which will feature local and Indo-Pacific contemporary art — the Honolulu Biennial Foundation will present Yayoi Kusama’s first Hawaiian exhibition starting this week. The Tokyo-based artist’s “Footprints of Life,” a 15-piece installation of giant blob sculptures — previously exhibited in the 2011 Aichi Triennial and Taiwan’s 2011 Taoyan Land Art Festival — can be interpreted as islands, or as a nod to Kahuli tree snails, endemic only to Oahu, which were nearly picked into extinction to decorate leis in the mid-20th century. According to Isabella Ellaheh Hughes, a co-founder of the foundation, Kusama’s piece “particularly resonates with Hawaii, because innately, this is a place where we are most attuned to our relationship with our delicate ecosystem.”
Kusama, 86, speaks in abstract but sharp sentences, and at times it takes energy to navigate her winding thoughts. “Hawaii is the place I have been admiring at a distance,” she said when T sat down with her last week. “I have never visited, but I think it dynamically stimulates my dreams, and I am eager to absorb Hawaii’s beauty fully into my mind.” One of the artist’s recurring themes is the symbiotic relationship between mankind and the environment — but her work, she explains, is not necessarily a direct call to be kinder to nature, because humans’ actions are part of nature. “We can live with all impressions because nature blesses us,” she says.
In this sense, Kusama believes her work is directly linked to nature, with her characteristic polka dots — in evidence once again on the “Footprints of Life” sculptures — representing the universe, specific planets or people. “The polka dot has the form of the moon, which is soft, round, peaceful and feminine. Polka dots never stay alone, but, like people, they seek company,” she says. Her thoughts frequently revolve around our place in the universe and the energy in it that makes us move forward. “Polka dots point the way to infinity,” she says — but admits that her systematic obsession with painting them entails a destructive edge, too. “We cannot stop our existence, as we cannot escape our deaths,” she says. “In order to overcome fear and anxiety, I have continued to make works, been buried in my expression, and my form has assimilated my works and I have kept self-obliterating.”
Kusama will also participate in the biennial, with a new commissioned work, and the foundation is banking on this teaser to help spotlight Hawaii’s burgeoning reputation as a fresh destination for international art. For her part, Kusama’s hopes for “Footprints of Life” are more localized. “I hope from the bottom of my heart,” Kusama says, “that my works born from this process will impress as many people as possible in Hawaii and touch their hearts.”
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Correction: March 8, 2016
An earlier version of this post and its headline misstated the source of inspiration for Yayoi Kusama’s installation. While her “Footprints of Life” sculptures can be interpreted as a nod to Kahuli tree snails, endemic to Oahu, the piece was not directly inspired by these snails. In addition, the post misstated Kusama’s age. She is 86, not 89.
An earlier version of this post and its headline misstated the source of inspiration for Yayoi Kusama’s installation. While her “Footprints of Life” sculptures can be interpreted as a nod to Kahuli tree snails, endemic to Oahu, the piece was not directly inspired by these snails. In addition, the post misstated Kusama’s age. She is 86, not 89.
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