YAYOI KUSAMA: Love Is Calling

Dubbed "Rain Room, Part Deux", Yayoi Kusama's I Who Have Arrived in Heaven at David Zwirner in Chelsea has been drawing sizable crowds to 19th Street.  A big fan of Kusama's work (in particular, her infinity rooms), I set out to Chelsea on Saturday afternoon, unprepared for the amusement park-like queues that greeted me.

Since Fireflies on the Water at the Whitney Museum last year, I skipped the line for the similar work Infinity Mirrored Room -- The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away, which commanded the lengthiest line.  The separate line for Love is Calling, moved fairly quickly, and after about 20 minutes, I was admitted into the room for my one minute of viewing.

The experience is delightfully overwhelming, and includes a soundtrack of Kusama's voice penetrating the chamber.  The beautifully luminous tentacles form an environment almost like a seascape, but the sound and infinite reflections make it a bit unsettling.  Endlessness, a theme explored throughout much of Kusama's work, is most notably embodied by these installations, calling to mind the triviality of an individual within the universe.

If you've never experienced one of Kusama's infinity rooms, I recommend a visit to 19th Street, preferably on a weekday.

Have you had a chance to see the exhibition?  How did it make you feel?

Dress: Vintage

Boots: Ash

Handbag: Marc by Marc Jacobs

I Who Have Arrived in Heaven

David Zwirner Gallery

November 8 - December 21, 2013

Photos by Kathy Paciello.

INSPIRATION: The Modern Woman.

I love this so much; all I want to do is wear an Op Art coat and stand near a Helen Frankenthaler painting.

From The New York Times' The Lively Morgue:

June 26, 1963: Reviving the American Indian art of painting on furs, the Fifth Avenue fur designer Jacques Kaplancommissioned five American artists to paint on his collection to be worn by “the modern woman.” Within two hours, the first coat — painted by Anuszkiewcz, with a geometric arrangement of black dots on white calfskin — was sold to Mrs. Harcourt Amory. Each design came as a complete surprise to Mr. Kaplan, as he allowed the artists “absolute freedom to do whatever they wanted.”

Photo: Mayer Liebowitz, The New York Times 

OP ART

I love polka dots. I submit that it is nearly impossible to be unhappy when one is wearing spots. Alas, I have very few spotted garments in my wardrobe, which is a void I've been working on filling. [Click images to enlarge.]

I found this vintage silk blouse at Goodwill recently and have been dying to wear it ever since. It's quite a festive color scheme for October, don't you think?

When I think of polka dots in art, it's impossible to ignore Op Art, like this 1964 Bridget Riley painting.

Bridget Riley was a proponent of the Op Art movement of the 1960s. At one of Riley's solo gallery shows, her paintings were accused of inducing seasickness!

Riley with some of her paintings.

Op Art became mainstream with the 1965 exhibition The Responsive Eye at the MoMA.

The use of optical illusions in fine art was hastily translated to advertising, as evidenced by this 1965 Pond's advertisement. I love it: "Spots are in, but not on your skin."

I'm wearing a vintage silk blouse with an Erin Fetherston skirt, vintage crinoline, Rampage lace socks, and Halston suede boots.

[Op Art images from the Boston Globe.]