Yayoi Kusama

Yayoi Kusama is a Japanese artist known for her use of repetition, patterns, and spatial installations. Through her signature polka dots, mirrors, and vivid colors, she creates environments in which space and perspective seem to dissolve and repeat endlessly.

What draws me to her work is the way the viewer becomes part of the image. Her installations are not only something to look at, but to step into. Through repetition and reflection, your sense of scale and orientation shifts, placing you—if only briefly—inside a different reality.

In my own practice, I am interested in how an image can be more than a simple registration of what is in front of the camera. Kusama’s work inspires me to think about how imagery can operate on a more sensory level, and how, as a maker, you can move beyond showing something to creating an experience.

What I also find compelling is how strongly Kusama herself is connected to her work. When she appears in photographs alongside her installations, she often becomes part of the visual language—almost blending into the patterns and colors. It feels as if she doesn’t just create the work, but fully inhabits it. This close connection between artist and artwork is something I find powerful and inspiring.