Speed Art Museum brings sense of wonder, reflection with Japanese artist’s immersive experience

Yayoi Kusama takes self-reflection literally. Her immersive experience, “LET’S SURVIVE FOREVER,” offers Kentuckians 90 seconds of unbridled introspection. The room, filled with angular and spherical mirrors, also reflects the unique lens with which Kusama engages the world. 

Born in Nagano Prefecture, Japan, Kusama moved to New York in 1957, where she lived and supported the queer community for more than a decade. Famously, in 1968, she established her own church and named herself “High Priestess of Polka Dots” to officiate a wedding between two men. Alleged to be the first gay wedding in the United States, this was just a glimpse of Kusama’s inclusive and sex-forward viewpoint.

Throughout her career, which Smithsonian Magazine describes as avant-garde and prolific, Kusama frequently depicts the human body and concepts of “self-obliteration” in ways that challenge her audiences to take on fresh perspectives of inherent or foundational beliefs. LET’S SURVIVE FOREVER is no exception. 

Currently on loan from the Art Gallery of Ontario, this presentation marks the first time that a major Kusama artwork has been on view in Kentucky.

“For queer folks, it’s always about making space and reminding ourselves that we get to exist like everyone else,” Speed Art Museum Curator of Contemporary Art Tyler Blackwell said. “In that very specific context, surviving forever is what we have always had to figure out a way to do. [LET’S SURVIVE FOREVER] is quite literally creating space for the thinking, the planning, the reminding of how we might achieve that space that we’re trying to take up to be safe, to exist.”

Not only does that message travel here from Japan, Kusama originated the piece at a mental health facility where she’s lived since the 1970’s. The exhibit breaks down personal barriers for those who engage it while the art itself does away with ableist and sociocultural barriers for a broader audience. 

Walking into the exhibit, Blackwell described the space as reminiscent of 2001 A Space Odyssey, with mirrored balls on the floor and hanging from the ceiling. “And in the center of the room is this fantastical box with multiple gazing holes in it, where you can enter and look more and you see the mirrors multiply even further,” Blackwell described. “And uniquely, Kusama has created these holes at different heights…because it’s for all ages. It’s meant to be a space where you can have your sort of sense of wonder.”

While your time in the room is limited to 90 seconds, the museum developed an additional exhibit for guests to explore, that will grow and change with the audiences who experience it. The Speed Art Museum’s Learning, Engagement and Belonging team partnered with Louisville-based Rockerbuilt Studio to create the “Infinity Lab,” a room filled with reflective surfaces and art materials for people to play with. While you won’t be able to touch the walls or reflective balls in Kusama’s exhibit, the Infinity Lab encourages interaction.

“It’s meant to be a really open-ended, fun and funky space,” Speed Art Museum Director of Learning, Engagement and Belonging Karen Gillenwater said. “This is the creativity lab space where we have foils, paint cleaners, punchouts molds, where people can make their own sculptural elements to add in and display.”

Both exhibits are open now, through January 12, 2025. You can learn more and purchase tickets at speedmuseum.org.