GIVE ME LOVE

Yayoi Kusama's Give Me Love, on view now at David Zwirner Gallery, has me seeing spots.

Upon entering the gallery, which is fully open to the street, you are confronted with a little house which is furnished completely in white, from floor to ceiling.  Each visitor is given a sheet of polka dot stickers, and you are encouraged to use all of them to decorate obliterate the space.  

Also accompanying the Obliteration Room are some of Kusama's pumpkins as well as a number of paintings in the space next door.  It's difficult to be unhappy while surrounded by colorful spots, and to be able to participate in the madness makes it that much more fun.

Give Me Love is on view through June 13 at 519 and 525 West 19th Street in NYC.

Dress: Vintage, with dot stickers

Shoes: The Kooples

Photos by Kathy Paciello.

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