News

A Yayoi Kusama “Infinity Mirrored Room” will go on permanent display at the Crystal Bridges Museum in Arkansas this week.

Christy Kuesel
Aug 29, 2019 8:51PM, via ARTNews

A Yayoi Kusama “Infinity Mirrored Room” installation was permanently acquired by the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. The installation Infinity Mirrored Room—My Heart is Dancing into the Universe (2018) features a series of color-changing paper lanterns surrounded by reflective mirrors, creating the illusion of the work going on forever.

The installations’ glittering, space-defying sense of wonder have provided fodder for an infinite number of Instagram posts, or at least the 85,000 currently listed under the #infinitekusama hashtag. “We can’t wait to share the brilliant work of Kusama in an intimate space,” said Rod Bigelow, Crystal Bridges executive director and chief diversity and inclusion officer, in a statement. The artwork was purchased from Victoria Miro gallery in London last year.

Kusama’s “Infinity Mirrored Rooms” tend to travel, exhibiting at different museums for only a few months at a time. An exhibit at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C., two years ago brought six of Kusama’s installations together, reportedly the most ever shown in one place. At least two other “Infinity Mirrored Room” installations will go on view this fall: one at the Westport Arts Center in Connecticut and one at the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston.

She has created over 20 distinct pieces, creating her first—Infinity Mirror Room—Phalli’s Field—in 1965. Almost 160,000 people saw the Hirshhorn exhibit in a three month period, with lines stretching around the block.

“Yayoi Kusama is an incredibly important figure in art, and her ‘Infinity Rooms’ are really something special,” Alejo Benedetti, an assistant curator at the museum, told ARTnews.

The Crystal Bridges Museum opened its doors in 2011 and was founded by Alice Walton, daughter of Walmart founder Sam Walton. The museum acquired another Kusama work, Flowers that Bloom Now (2017), in 2018. Infinity Mirrored Room—My Heart is Dancing into the Universe will only be available to members starting Saturday, but will open to the public on October 2. The exhibit is free, though each visitor only has one minute to enjoy it.

Christy Kuesel