13
EZTHE
WASHINGTON
POST
.
FRIDAY,APRIL
1, 2022
From the Cover
Return of the polka dot priestess
A mini show at the Hirshhorn offers a more intimate window into Yayoi Kusama’s world
BY KELSEY ABLES
T
he Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden’s 2017
blockbuster “Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors” indulged
the best and the worst of our smartphone-centric,
hyperconnected selves, showing that art museums aren’t just
for looking, but for participating, posing and posting. Luring
crowds with photogenic installations, the show proliferated
online, breaking museum attendance records. A generous critic
might praise it for exposing a wider audience to art. A cynic
might liken it to clickbait. ¶ Now Kusama is back — albeit in a
more petite size. “One With Eternity: Yayoi Kusama in theHirshhorn Collection” highlights five Kusama artworks owned
by the museum, including two “Infinity Mirror” rooms. But it
opens in a different era. ¶ For a society obsessed with images
and the endless ways to present yourself online, Kusama’s work
was a perfect match. Her immersive rooms functioned as visual
echo chambers, multiplying the viewer, like tweets that affirm
your beliefs and customized ads that stalk you across the
Internet. They showed us our favorite product — ourselves —
and bolstered a primal belief: By replicating ourselves through
images and reflections, we too can become infinite.SHURAN HUANG FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
Inside a new polka dot room at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden sits a massive, fiber-reinforced plastic pumpkin
c reated by artist Yayoi Kusama, on view as part of “ One With Eternity: Yayoi Kusama in the Hirshhorn Collection.”