Yayoi Kusama and "Infinity Points": Blooming Between Loneliness and Love

Yayoi Kusama and the "Point of Infinity": Blooming Between Solitude and Love

I want to disappear.
But I want to love the world.

Yayoi Kusama's work embraces this contradiction, enveloping us with countless polka dots.
It is a prayer for the disappearance of the self and for oneness with the universe.
Her polka dots are not just a pattern.
It is a memory of a vision, a ritual of solitude, and a cry of love.

A hallucination she had been experiencing since childhood - countless dots and mesh patterns spreading across her field of vision.
It was frightening, but also a reality for her.
When you don't deny that reality, but rather sublimate it into a work of art,
Polka dots have gone beyond being merely a visual decoration and have become a symbol that touches the very essence of existence.

The dots multiply, filling the space and eventually dissolving the outline of "I."
It is not the disappearance of the self, but the expansion of the self.
"I" becomes a point and dissolves into the world, resonating with others, the universe, and love.

Wabi-Sabi and Yayoi Kusama: A Voice in Silence

If wabi-sabi is the "beauty of imperfection," then Yayoi Kusama stands at the very extreme end of that spectrum.
Reject perfection, embrace loneliness, and shout out love.
Her work gives a frenzied voice to the stillness of wabi-sabi.

Wabi-sabi is the sensibility to find beauty in things that decay.
Cracked tea bowls, faded shoji screens, and a garden of fallen leaves.
There is a gaze on the flow of time and transience.

Kusama's polka dots also grow and disappear over time.
It is the expression of someone who dreams of eternity while also knowing transience.
Her installation, "Infinity Mirrored Hall," is a perfect example of this.
The countless dots reflected in the mirror create an endless universe,
Standing within it, we become a single grain of existence in infinity.

But that one grain has a definite meaning.
Because they are lonely, they seek others and yearn for love.
This attitude resonates with the essence of wabi-sabi.

The resonance of polka dots and wabi-sabi

• Dots love white space.
→ It is because there is white space that points stand out. It is because there is silence that voices resonate.
• Proliferation is an affirmation of loneliness.
→ With each point, loneliness becomes less lonely. Loneliness becomes a connection with others.
• Colour is a cry of emotion.
→ Vivid red, deep blue, poisonous yellow. Kusama's colors are a cry from the depths of her heart.
• Infinity is the flip side of transience.
→ Dreaming of eternity is possible because we know the fleeting nature of this moment.

Wabi-sabi is like a camellia blooming in a quiet garden.
Yayoi Kusama created a storm of red polka dots in the garden.
It's not destruction, it's reconstruction.
The act of breathing life into silence.

She says, "I want to fill the world with love."
Those words sound like a seed of hope found at the end of loneliness.

Yayoi Kusama: What I want to convey to young people

It doesn't have to be perfect.
Even if you're lonely, you can still love.
Screaming or silent, both are beautiful.

Today's young people are surrounded by the sea of ​​social media.
Swayed by the number of "likes," I feel like I'm being swept away by the wave of "righteousness."
At such times, Yayoi Kusama's works gently speak to us.
"You can just be you."

Her polka dots are both regular and somewhat irregular.
It is a rhythm that affirms the differences between each of us.
"It doesn't have to be the same" "It doesn't have to be perfect"
The message reaches the heart quietly but surely.

When I come into contact with her work,
We will redefine loneliness.
It's not the despair of not being able to connect with anyone,
Proof that you have your own universe.

When her polka dots dance in the quietude of wabi-sabi,
There, the ``me'' that no one can take away blooms.
It is a cry, a prayer, and a form of love.

Towards the future guided by points

Yayoi Kusama's polka dots continue to grow throughout the ages.
It is proof that her soul is still trying to envelop the world.
The attitude of crying out for love while carrying loneliness,
For us who live in the future,
It gives a hint as to one way of being.

"I want to disappear, but I also want to love the world."
Embrace that contradiction.
That is Yayoi Kusama's art.
It's a quiet yet powerful message for us to live by.