The example here, My Flower Bed (1965-66) is made of painted, covered mattress springs and stuffed gloves. This piece shows her frequent use of repetition and every day objects. The work suggests, as do the sculptures pictured in the background, a fragmented biomorphism and a lush and out of control bloom.
What I enjoy about this work is the use of every day objects to create a visually illusive and seductive installation, with rich colours that screams feminism. Many of her works utilise the dot along with other repetitive patterns to suggest a multiplying disease, which is obviously a daily consideration for Kusama.
Yayoi, Kusama, 'Dots Obsession', 2004.
This has been prevelant in my recent work from end of 2006 and is suggestive of this same concept as well as 'chaos'. Amongst this repetitive choas is always a small 'clearing', a patch of quiet and for me this is my piece of serenity, the peace and quiet I crave for in a chaotic world. In considering this concept it also relates back to my child hood and the confusion that I felt living with a parent with mental health issues. There were times when you just wanted to 'escape' and other times when you wanted to become the parent to comfort and console the distress, to try and make things right again.
Omnipotent By Nature, 2006. Mixed Media on Paper, 83 x 110cm
There is also often this ordering system for the 'choas', an ordering of both the past and an ordering or mapping system for the present and future. A motivator for my work comes from the past 30 years of living with an illness that requires daily rituals to control. I have heard from the medical profession so many statistics, about life expectancy, related complications, percentages, images, test results etc etc, which from the age of five has deep rooted the predictions for my future. So to clarify the concept of mapping system, it is mapping my eternity, my past, my present and future. Each dot, each repetitive pattern, each collage of the smaller works is a map of my time here so far and my time to come. Each pattern is sometimes representative of a cell, multiplying, expanding and continuing on forever. With this in mind, it is the crux of the concept behind the immersive environments. What I want from these installations is the viewer to be completely immersed in my world and though no other person can experience my experiences, it is an emotion or feeling that I am trying to create. Sometimes completely absorb and other times very sterile and empty.
But back to my influences.... next is Eva Hesse and her sculptural forms, with there organic sometimes phallic structure, her sense of materiality, as well as the diversity of her materials.
Untitled. 1970. Figerglass ovver polyethylene over aluminium wire. 7 units each 78 in. x 40 in. each. Berkeley: University Art Museum
I find this particular work of Hesse's very phallic and organic and I believe I read somewhere that this work was in reaction to Pollocks 'Blue Poles'.
Because this post could turn into something huge I will leave it at two per post. So stay tuned for the next addition of amazing female artists and the continuing story of my influences...
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