Let your eyes roam between the rectangular frames that make up this giant installation, titled Shooting Stars. Kusama filled each of the eighty-four frames with hand-sewn fabric sacs that extend in all directions, taking over this orderly grid structure as if they are wild parasitic vines. The silvery entangling forms also resemble synapses of the nervous system and evoke a flow of electric currents. The assemblage alludes to an expanding universe; or, it can represent something as small as cells and as big as the stars in the sky.
After returning to Japan from New York in 1973, Kusama focused on coping with psychological distress and deteriorating mental health. In the 1980s, she cemented her position as a leading avant-garde artist in Japan and received increasing attention from the international art world. She created this work in 1992, one year before she represented Japan at the Venice Biennale, the most important recurring global exhibition of contemporary art. The installation seems to radiate energy, symbolising her ambition and explosive creativity.
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