Yayoi Kusama's Flower-Filled Installation Has Art Lovers Seeing Red

"Subtle" would probably be the last word one would use to describe the work of 89-year-old artist Yayoi Kusama. Her larger-than-life installations tend to feature loud colors, funhouse-esque mirrors, and frenzied patterns—and her latest work is no exception.

Her installation, Flower Obsession, was specially commissioned for the Melbourne-based National Gallery of Victoria's Triennial, an art event supported by the government of Victoria, Australia that ran from December through April. Gallery organizers said they counted 1.2 million visitors at the Triennial, making it the most visited exhibition in the gallery's 157-year history.

Many people came just to get a glimpse of Kusama's color-crazed world. As My Modern Met reports, gallery-goers were invited to stick faux daisies onto the walls and surfaces of an otherwise drab space made to look like the inside of an apartment. Eventually, a sea of 550,000 red flowers engulfed everything in sight, from light fixtures to chairs to a toilet. Up until April 15, 2018, only those in attendance got an up-close look at this evolving installation. But new images, released by the National Gallery of Victoria, are giving art lovers around the world the chance to see this amazing piece for themselves.

Kusama explained her inspiration prior to the show's opening:

"One day, after gazing at a pattern of red flowers on the tablecloth, I looked up to see that the ceiling, the windows, and the columns seemed to be plastered with the same red floral pattern," she said in a statement. "I saw the entire room, my entire body, and the entire universe covered with red flowers, and in that instant, my soul was obliterated."

In the past, Kusama has spoken out about her experience with mental illness and the hallucinations she's had since childhood, many of which have inspired her work. "My nets grew beyond myself and beyond the canvases I was covering with them," she once said. "They began to cover the walls, the ceiling, and finally the whole universe." Kusama has voluntarily lived in a psychiatric facility in Tokyo since 1977.

Flower Obsession isn't the first time Kusama has introduced the concept of "obliterating" a space. For a previous installation, visitors were encouraged to place colorful polka dots on the white walls of a room. To see this installation and others by Kusama, check out the photos below.

[h/t My Modern Met]