📝 Mirrors, Light and Colours
3 Lessons on creativity from Yayoi Kusama's 'Infinity Mirrored Rooms'
‘Forget yourself. Become one with eternity. Become part of your environment.’ — Yayoi Kusama
A few weeks ago I had the pleasure to visit Yayoi Kusama’s exhibition ‘Infinity Mirrored Rooms’ at the Tate Modern in London. It was an opportunity to get to know more about the work of this iconic Japanese artist.
As an architect, I couldn’t help but wonder about the nitty-gritty process of putting such an infinite atmosphere together. There is design everywhere - especially in art. And Kusama’s approach to art and the process of designing these rooms is an extremely creative one.
These are 3 lessons on creativity (that we can all embrace from today) I gathered from my visit to Yayoi Kusama’s exhibition at the Tate Modern:
Lesson 1: Less is more1
What struck me the most when I wondered about the assembly of the rooms was how simply designed these spaces were yet how powerful, perceptually, the outcome was.
Kusama uses very few materials - mirrors, light and colours, and simple geometries - a hexagon and cubes. Her rooms were surprisingly small, yet incredibly expansive. This demonstrates that in design (or in life), one doesn’t need to overcomplicate it or use many different materials to create a rich and interesting space. Most of the time, God (or whatever you believe in) is in the details2.
This a link to a previous sketch exercise on this ‘Less is more’ philosophy:
Lesson 2: Use materials or media in an unconventional way
Kusama uses intangible materials (light and colour) to design her infinity rooms. She’s designing an atmosphere, instead of a traditional space. On the other hand, she plays with perspective: the mirrors expand the real boundaries of the room, to infinity and beyond.
As architects, sometimes we tend to design and focus on boxes, on spaces demarcated by matter and boundaries, and we tend to give little attention to senses like smell, temperature of materials, emotions caused by colour, etc. The creative approaches of architects such as Anna Heringer and Peter Zumthor3 bring perception, colour, and light to the core of the design practice, creating rich spaces that are atmospheres in essence. As artists, sometimes we tend to use media in conventional ways instead of thinking outside of the box on the possibilities of the materials. David Hockney's photographic collages are a fantastic reference for using media in an unconventional way.
The key to thinking more creatively is to bring paradoxical ideas and questions together. For example, in Kusama’s room: what happens inside a space when all the walls are mirrors? What if we then bring coloured light into the darkness? How can we get the floor to reflect? What if we use water…?
Lesson 3: Design, create, what you believe in
Last but not least, one of the bits I enjoyed the most about the exhibition (that normally gets overlooked) was the very first room where I learned about Kusama’s biography and story (some of the old photographs were actually really good).
Kusama’s artistic journey is an example of courage, self-belief, and determination. She lived her life truly on her own terms. She created the art she believed in, even if this meant going against conventions and battling her own mental health issues.
This is a big lesson I remind myself constantly: design, create, what you believe in, what you feel. Sometimes we enclose ourselves in conventional approaches because we are afraid of being different or because we want to please other people’s opinions4. But we all have our own unique creative voice inside us.
Speak it up! - the world will be a nicer place.
💫✏️
Happy sketching!
Ana
Have you been sketching this week? It would be great to hear about it! Leave a comment and share your thoughts :)
This quote is attributed to the re-known architect Mies van der Rohe.
This quote is also attributed to the re-known architect Mies van der Rohe, although I recently heard the variant ‘The Devil is in the details’. Curiouser and curiouser…
I recommend his book ‘Atmospheres’.
And especially architects, in general, have lots and lots of (personal) opinions about work that’s not their own.
Thank you Ana, this was an interesting read. I visited that exhibition, it was SO busy and it was in the earlier days of unmasking so I didn't feel completely comfortable standing in the queue for such a long time. It felt a bit like "consuming" art on such a conveyor belt, so I tried to see it in different ways and was wowed that so many people had made such an effort to come and see it and how wonderful that is, when they could be doing so many other things in the capital. I only went into one room in the end as the queue was crazy. (I had just renewed my Tate membership so it didn't feel reckless to quit!) In terms of this week's sketching, I am very new to it all so it's a rocky road. I can go through what feels like a good run with a few pages that bring me joy, then I seem to take several steps back in my fledgling abilities. I don't really understand why this happens but luckily I've got enough life experience to know that I just need to keep going, even if I feel disheartened! So I am taking a short course by Felix Scheinberger right now to give me a fresh perspective.