Yayoi Kusama

I first saw Kusama's work at an amazing exhibition back in 2000 at The Serpentine Gallery, she is one of those artists that once seen never forgotten. This exhibition was brilliantly curated with a mix of instillations and paintings. It was the giant morphic shapes I remember the most clearly, amazingly I still have the catalogue.

My father emailed with details of a guided talk curtesy of Nottingham university, it seemed a good opportunity to finally see her retrospective at The Tate Modern, and the talk was excellent as is the show, which is still  packed with visitors. And yes, the amazing spot instillations still pack a punch especially the infinity room, but this time what really stopped me in my tracks  was her Infinity-Nets series.

From a distance they appear to be painted dots, in fact the dark spaces are the spaces left by swirls of thick white paint. I was reminded by Richter's blanket series where he covered his paintings with a layer of thick white paint. The layer beneath just peers through as it does here, only these are very controlled swirls and spirals applied with such energy, they seem to pulsate off the canvas.

After the Richter show I had this amazing surge of creative energy and I feel it now too, especially now the written work is over all I have left to do is finish my next project based on Cyprus.

But feel that for now I have exhausted Cyprus and its landscapes, only for now though, to move forward I have to return and work back in the field as my memory is too dimmed to create any more landscapes. I had thought we would return this coming Christmas, but I think the misery of last year stuck in a cold, damp house as the rain lashed down with nowhere to sit was too much for Emin. Coupled with both Daisy and Kitty's desire to Christmas with us this year, we are now looking to rent an apartment in Berlin over Christmas and New Year instead.
images from here, here & here