YAYOI KUSAMA: JUST ANOTHER DOT IN THE WORLD
THE PROBLEM
Yayoi Kusama is a Japanese artist who specializes in a art form that she's dubbed "obliteration." Kusama covers art pieces, furniture, rooms, etc. with small pieces-often dots-to symbolize consumption. Kusama had previous struggles with anxiety and this was her way of symbolizing how her anxious thoughts manifested.
The problem I ran into was since her art form is so colorful and erratic I had to find a way to balance her distinctive style and unify her many different uses of colors.
© Yayoi Kusama
© Yayoi Kusama
© Yayoi Kusama
© Yayoi Kusama
THE SOLUTION
My solution was to channel the complete opposite of Kusama's style. I focused on minimal color and sophisticated typography. The clean, sans-serif typeface I chose was intentional, so that the typeface decoration didn't distract from her art work.
KEY FEATURE
The circles at the beginning of the book are actually stickers. The book design and layout is very simple with the idea that the individual user gets to decorate their own book.
This parallels Kusama's performance art piece called The Obliteration Room, where every person is given stickers to place around an empty white room. Every time the piece is performed it takes a completely new form, one of the key points of a performance art piece.
THE GALLERY SHOW
THE RESEARCH
After measuring out the exhibition space, I had to determine what works I wanted to feature in conjunction with the book I had already created.
I decided to do a sampling of Kusama's work so that people who were new to her art could experience the breadth of her work.
I did also want to include an Obliteration Room, The second room was dedicated strictly to that performance art piece.
ELEVATIONS
FINAL EXHIBITION
REFLECTION
- This project challenged me, because typically I don't actively seek out projects whee I have to create a physical "something." The construction element always challenges me.
- I would love to make a small scale model of the gallery, especially so that you can see things like the 3D pieces in conjunction with where people would be walking.
NEXT STEPS
- I'd like to involve an augmented reality element in the gallery. Possibly as a way to continue The Obliteration Room on a digital scale. How could including the AR element take Kusama's art form to a new level?
- Creating a social media package (Snapchat/Instagram filters, .gifs, posts, social media strategy, etc.)