Tonight I went with a bunch of friends to Le Parc de la Villette to see the Yayoi Kusama installation. The site was originally a meat market & slaughterhouse, but in 1982, was turned into a cultural center.
The building itself is really quite impressive, and walking into the Kusama show just added to the pleasure.
For those that are unfamiliar with her, she is a japanese artist, born in 1929, that has struggled with mental illness. Early in her career, she began covering surfaces (walls, floors, etc) with the polka dots that would become a trademark of her work. The vast fields of polka dots, or "infinity nets," as she calls them, were taken directly from her hallucinations. By covering spaces with the “infinity nets”, she creates almost an entire obliteration of the space.
Today she lives, by choice, in a mental hospital in Tokyo, where she has continued to produce work.
And last, but not least, it was a great evening with some truly wonderful friends. We went for a bite to eat after seeing the exhibit at the cafe on the premises, basking in the sun until it finally went out of sight, and then took a long walk down to stalingrad, where we sat by the canal and had a drink, just enjoying the company of one another.
I am already beginning to miss Paris.
