First time experiencing Kusama’s infinity mirrored rooms!

April 13, 2018:  The Yayoi Kusama Infinity Mirrors exhibit at the AGO was fantastic and definitely worth the money!  I, along with thousands across the GTA, logged in early onto the AGO website on January 16 to get placed in line to buy a ticket.  On the first day of ticket purchasing, I had completely forgotten about it and by the time I queued myself in the virtual line, I was 27,930th in place andthere was no possible way to get a ticket that day.

I readied myself and got in line again the next day and successfully got in.  This time, the place was a lot more favourable for me (#5,100) and by 3:09 p.m. that afternoon, I was finally first in line to purchase my tickets.  Even after I logged in though, I quickly realized it was a mad scramble to pick a suitable time slot as many others were buying and choosing their tickets at the same time as me.

I waited in line virtually from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. to get the tickets. Thank goodness for this technology!

Anyway, so the Yayoi Kusama exhibit was wonderful and unlike anything I’ve ever been to.  The line-up started according to your time, so at 4 p.m., we could start queuing up for our 4:15 p.m. time slot.

Even the “AGO” letters have been Kusama-ed 😀

Infinity Mirrors!

We took the elevator up to the fifth floor where the first couple of exhibits were.  I felt a need to take a photo of everything I saw since getting to this point was so difficult and I know of a lot of people who weren’t able to get a ticket.

Red Stripes, 1965
– stuffed cotton, kapok, wood

Entering the first room

The rooms themselves were amazing and the very first one, Phalli’s Field, was the most memorable.  Walking into a mirrored room was so surreal!  Everything reflected into infinity and Yayoi definitely achieved her intention with all her creations.

Phalli’s Field

Aftermath of Obliteration of Eternity

Dots Obsession — Love Transformed into Dots

This Dots Obsession — Love Transformed into Dots room was the only one without a line-up.

Love Forever

The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away

All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins — no pictures allowed inside this room

There was only one room where we weren’t allowed to take photos in which was the All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins room.  I liked this better because we got to actually enjoy the room instead of trying to capture the few seconds that we were in there for.

Each room allowed either 20 or 30 seconds of viewing time and there were two rooms where an attendant came into the room with us as well (Phalli’s Field and the no camera one, All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins).

The rooms each allowed three people inside at a time so in every room, we were either accompanied by a third person or the attendant.  It would have been nice to enjoy the rooms for: A, a longer period of time since 20 to 30 seconds was so short (!!!), and B, to enjoy the rooms by ourselves without another stranger inside it with us.

All in all, it was such a great opportunity to experience the artwork of Yayoi Kusama and I’m so glad we were lucky enough to get tickets to attend.

Since the lines were long (maybe about 20 minutes’ waiting time at least), these infographs about Kusama’s life helped to break up the monotony

I took a lot of photos

When we left the exhibit finally, I had wanted to visit the 2nd floor too to view the Narcissus Garden exhibit but it didn’t seem like we had access to it…

Do you see my bicycle?

I also liked the final room where we received a sheet with coloured polka dot stickers to stick anywhere in the room.  By this point of our visit (midpoint of the whole exhibit since it ran from March to May), there had already been thousands of visitors before us.  Thus, the room was already quite stickered over.  I recalled seeing some people’s photos of this room on social media and they had had a plainer room.  This was such a cool interactive and changing art piece!  It’s so creative.  It’s also hands-on and fun. 🙂

The Obliteration Room (as seen on April 13, 2018)

😀

Such a fun concept for art