LIGHT OF LIFE
Artist
Yayoi Kusama
Japanese, born 1929
Date2018
MediumMirrored box and LED lighting system
Dimensions86 5/8 x 84 1/4 x 72 7/8 in. (220 x 214 x 185.1 cm)
ClassificationsTime Based Media
Credit LinePurchased with funds from the North Carolina State Art Society (Robert F. Phifer Bequest) and the bequest of Carlyle Adams, with additional funding from James Keith Brown and Eric Diefenbach, and Dr. W. Kent Davis and Dr. Carlos Garcia-Velez
Object number2017.19
On View
On viewIn this enclosed version of an infinity room, Kusama invites you to look inside a mirrored chamber. Gazing through the portholes reveals your reflection, other viewers, and a two-minute show of colored lights that is dazzling and slightly disorienting. Multiplied by mirrors, reflections endlessly repeat on the chamber walls, confounding our perception of spatial limits. “Thousands of illuminated colors blinking at the speed of light,” notes Kusama. “Isn’t this the very illusion of Life in our transient world?”
[L. Dougherty, "The People's Collection, Reimagined," 2022]ProvenanceCreated Tokyo, 2018; collection of the artist; [David Zwirner Gallery, New York]; sold to NCMA, 2018.
Published ReferencesDavid Menconi, “NCMA to show piece from revered conceptual artist Yayoi Kusama,” Raleigh, The News & Observer (March 28, 2018), 1A, 2A, illus. (color) 1A.
Victoria Scott-Miller, The Museum Lives in Me (Raleigh, NC: North Carolina Museum of Art, 2022), illus 17, 18, 19-20 (artist's illustrations).
North Carolina Museum of Art, "The People's Collection," (Raleigh, NC; North Carolina Museum of Art, 2024), illus. (color) 56-57.Exhibition HistoryRaleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, “You Are Here: Light, Color, and Sound Experiences,” April 7–July 22, 2018.
Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "The People's Collection, Reimagined," October 7, 2022–April 30, 2023.
Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "The People's Collection, Reimagined," December 18, 2023-present. Object Rights Statement
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