The Fourth Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

• •• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • : • • • . • - -- • • • . . • • • • • • . • • • • ,-: , • . . . "'• ... ' ,. ~ .. • ••• • • •• • ~- Self obliteration by dots 1968 Gelatin silver photographs Dimensions variable Collection: The artist Courtesy: Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo Photograph: Hal Reiff 60 Kusama s peep show: endless love show, the second of two 'Infinity/Mirror rooms' made during the artist's New York years, was presented in 1966. These environments are architectural expressions of Kusama's 'Infinity net' works; they offer audiences the opportunity to immerse themselves in the artist's own visual reality. At the opening of Kusamas peep show: endless love show, the artist freely distributed 'Love Forever' buttons. The documentary photograph of Kusama on this occasion has earned iconic status as a representation of the artist and as a cipher for the spirit and hope of the times. The late 1960s was the height of Kusama's whole-hearted interaction with youth-led challenges to militarism, societal norms and sexual expectations. Performance emerged as integral within Kusama's practice at this time, and many of her 'happenings' in North America were entwined with a political radica lism that believed in the possibility of collective and individual action as an agency for change. Kusama's 'happenings' erupted in 1967 in NewYork and the Netherlands with an abundance of willing flower-child participants. These included 'naked events', 'orgies' and 'flagburnings', which the artist presented at a range of landmarks such as the Brooklyn Bridge, the Statue of Liberty, the Stock Exchange, the United Nations, and Wall Street. Kusama also staged 'body festivals' in parks and civic spaces. Since these early gestures, Kusama's performative actions have continued on three levels: the radical, the commercial, and the reflective. APT2002 • • Infinity nets 2000 Synthetic polymer paint on canvas 160 x 130cm The Kenneth and Yasuko Myer Collection of Contemporary Asian Art Purchased 2001 with funds from The Myer Foundation A project of the Sidney Myer Centenary Celebration 1899-1999 Gift through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation Collection: Queensland Art Gallery The Vietnam War was at its height, and one of many impassioned anti-war protests initiated by Kusama was Naked demonstration at Wall Street: the anatomic explosion in 1968. The artist stated in her media release: 'The money made with this stock is enabling the war to continue. We protest this cruel, greedy instrument of the war establishment ... '. 5 Kusama 's handling of the media was consummate; press releases and zealous documentation soon accompanied her performances, which were swiftly embraced by the sensationalist New York tabloid press. Kusama herself vigorously and successfully self-directed this promotion, leaving the art press of the day somewhat bemused. A seamless extension of Kusama's 'happenings' was her 1968 foray into fi lm-making. Self Obliteration is an award– winning 16mm film, which Kusama directed in collaboration with psychedelic film-maker Jud Yalkut. Harnessing time-based filmic languages and animation, this work echoes the artist's visual processes as it captures and augments the radical and audacious vitality of Kusama's performative work. One of Kusama's earliest documented performances is Walking piece c.1966, a lyrical work informed more by reflection than pol itical provocation. This sequence of photographs reveals Kusama in role as an archetypal Japanese woman passing through the insistent ordinariness of pedestrian life as she walks the streets of New York. She wears a crimson-patterned kimono and holds an umbrella ornamented with flowers echoing the proliferation of violet and red blooms that littered her childhood visions, as revealed in one of her poems: 'plum blossoms scatter, piling up higher than the end of space . ' 6 Kusama was astutely aware of the exotic, eroticised persona she embodied in Walking piece. The final images reveal the artist as isolated protagonist disappearing into the distance, the implication being of a continuum - that her walking of the city will never cease.