Yellow Pumpkin 1992

Editor: This is Yayoi Kusama's "Yellow Pumpkin," created in 1992. It's an acrylic painting and when you look at it you instantly recognize it as one of Kusama's iconic patterned works. It feels kind of…hypnotic? All those dots! What do you make of it? Curator: Hypnotic is spot on! Kusama’s pumpkins, particularly this one, are almost a portal, aren’t they? They invite you to tumble down into a world of obsession and infinity. But not in a scary way, more like a strangely comforting, all-consuming kind of way. The repetition almost becomes meditative. Does it make you think of anything beyond, well, just a pumpkin? Editor: I guess I hadn’t thought of it that way! A portal, huh? I was too busy counting all those dots. Is that her point, to overwhelm us? Curator: Maybe. Or perhaps to show us how even the simplest form, like a pumpkin, can contain an entire universe. And you know, her signature polka dots… They started as hallucinations. Now they're her artistic signature and, I would argue, her power. By translating what was once deeply personal and disturbing, into joyful and relatable forms like these pumpkins, she reclaims them, transforms them. Don't you think? Editor: That makes so much sense. It’s like she’s inviting us into her experience, but making it something beautiful and even a little…funky, as the tags indicate! I thought it was just dots! Curator: Aha! Never "just" dots my dear friend. What this piece tells me, yet again, is how she beautifully shows that the most ordinary things hold the greatest wonder. It’s a wonderful trick isn’t it, transforming anxieties into pure joy, pumpkins, dots and all.