WITH TITLES

on Exhibition of  Yayoi Kusama: 1945 to Now

At M+ Hong Kong 

( 12th November to 14th May 2023 )

Diary : 12th November 2022

By Lee-Pisapia Kam Fu Bernadette 

In 1962, Kusama made a very beautiful work titled Light n.1.

She did this little drawing with gouache and pastel on paper.

She was thirty-three.

The glowing effect in between the intertwined branches startles you.

Immediately, one feels the presence of the light of a poetic moon ;

The famous Chinese poem of Wang Wei (701-761 AD ) then comes to my mind,

‘ in between the pine trees the bright moon shines,’

It is well known that Wang Wei paints a picture with his words, and in this case, Kusama paints Wang Wei’s words in silence.

Powerful image in deep mediation.

I have often thought those who manage to paint days and nights without stop like Kusama does are beings with praying souls.

Each mark she or he makes, is an inner prayer externalised .

The more one makes the mark on canvas, the more one is able to see face to face with his/ her own voice. Perhaps in the beginning it is only a noise, but then when it gets repeated, it turns into a chant.

One mark makes a noise, many marks make a chanting net. The net intertwined with another net , then another. Something becomes evident: a net with a pattern is formed.

The pattern , when repeated, one seems to find oneself: one’s own unique voice- inner voice.

The voice is a silent prayer , echoed within until it is expressed aloud.

The first soft quieted noise is now a prayer and a song.

Kusama’s polka dot exhibitions at M+ shows me her strength of such practice.

Being with the Spiritual is her practice.

From the soft tone of the poetic 1962 work to her most recent series ‘ My eternal Soul series ‘ (2009-2021) , we see how her inner voice became a loud and strong prayer of strength.

Instead of just looking at her works which could possibly be picked and installed quite randomly, ( in the sense that one could not be not random when facing a volume of work as much as 900 in number during that single period ), I decided to look at them through the titles.

Not many artists give their works lengthy titles as Kusama did in this last period.

Let’s give a look at these titles before seeing her works.

( note how the titles turn from quiet voice then into long poems as time goes by . Interestingly, we see a short and powerful poetic prayer of title in the most recent works 

2022

Everyday I pray for Love . )

2013

My heart with many worries

2017

Women who went sight seeing to the Universe

2017

All of mankind has, each and everyone of them, intoned peace

2017

When I saw the largest dream in life

2018

When love sprang between two people

2018

Garden of women in Blooming youth

2019

Splendour of the great blue atmosphere that the Lake creates

2019

There is no one who is unmoved by how amazing it is to be able to see the beauty of creation everyday in this world and Universe we live in

2019

Record of my youth

2019

This is where the Loves of all mankind reside

2019

Road to Eternal Love and Hope

2019

Splendid visions of Love created by Humanity

2019

We who are captivated by the utmost beauty of everything we know and shed tears as we were monstrously touched by the mystery of the beauty

2019

I want to dream my dearest dream

2019

My life’s wish is to devote myself to the infinite fantasy

2019

Awe towards the mystery of the Universe that speaks to us across the darkness of Universe

2020

To Michelle Obama

2020

Behold the figure of one who survived isolation beautifully

2020

Time, not eternity , self-destructs now

2020

Red light of sunset, my heartfelt request for the beauty of being alive

2021

Spirit of myself manifests in the Universe!

O God, through a crack in the sky I pray you’ll gaze down on me.

I want you to see the splendour of the path I trod, and footprints etched upon the universe

2021

At the extremity of sorrow buried in Dreams

Now is when I must wield the power of Art

Hearing echoes of the frenzied human world and cloud-shaped colours in the firmament.

Amidst the gloom of this world braving phantoms daily

Within a droplet of wholehearted Love

dreaming of the future

I want only to go on living life fully

Becoming ever more human 

even were my now-blossoming heart overwhelmed with loneliness

Taking up the shield of Art

I would press on to the Summit

as a human being

I would press on to the Summit

wishing only to go on living life fully

2021

Amidst the agony of flowers, the present never ends

At the stars to heaven, my heart expires in their tenderness

Calling from the sky, doubtless, transparent in its shade of blue

Embraces with the shadow of illusion

Cumulonimbi arise

Sounds of tears

Shed upon eating the colours of cotton rose

2022 

Everyday I pray for Love 

Dear Kusama,

Thank you for your poems of prayers

Thank you for allowing us to meditate through your inner voice

which blend sooner or later with each of our own inner voice

Such is your generosity of your dream of obliteration

( we are alone yet united in your ‘ Aspiring to Heaven’s Love’ room )

And thank you for the spiritual vision of seeing clouds from up above

( 100 mirror finished floor sculpture) 

Yes, like you said ‘through the crack in the sky how we hope God will graze down on us’! 

Are we now given a chance to rise above our limited vision to see as God sees when we are in your room of ‘clouds’?

You gave us a big piece of poem of prayer with titles .

Happy birthday Kusama!

( article published on 21st March 2023 to celebrate the arrival of Primavera )

( Yayoi Kusama will be turning 94 on 22nd of March 2023 )