Yayoi Kusama’s Obliteration Room is back. This time, it’s a house
By Nick Dent
Japan’s Yayoi Kusama, also known as the Dot Lady, is one of the world’s most famous living artists, and one of her most popular works originated in Brisbane.
The Obliteration Room was developed at the Queensland Art Gallery in 2002 for the Asia Pacific Triennial: an all-white space that changes over time as visitors add thousands of colourful dot stickers to walls, floor and furniture.
Yayoi Kusama’s popular interactive installation returns as part of Wonderstruck at GOMA.Credit: N Harth © QAGOMA
Seen and loved by more than 5 million gallery visitors around the world in the intervening years, the piece is making a triumphant return to Brisbane in the Gallery of Modern Art’s Wonderstruck exhibition.
QAGOMA senior program officer at the Children’s Art Centre, Laura Mudge, said the Obliteration Room this time is taking over a larger space that replicates the rooms of a Queenslander cottage.
“This is a work a lot of people have strong memories about,” she said.
“We can’t think of a better example of the delight we see audiences experience than when they become collaborators and stick the dots on the walls.”
Wonderstruck is a free exhibition for all ages that draws upon works already in the QAGOMA collection.
Unusually, it has been curated not by curatorial staff but by Mudge and the gallery’s head of public engagement, Tamsin Cull.
The emphasis is on work that is both crowd-pleasing and interactive.
“We know that all audiences love the opportunity to get creative, to get hands-on, and this is the opportunity for those people,” Cull said.
Art on display ranges from a grand arch made from cardboard boxes (by Slovenian artist Tobias Putrih) to a huge, uncannily lifelike woman in her bed (by Australian Ron Mueck).
Project: Another Country by Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan invites gallery goers to make their own airplanes. Credit: K Bennett © QAGOMA
Major international artists in the show include Ai Weiwei, with his series of 5000-year-old neolithic vases dipped in bright paint, and Bridget Riley, famous for her optical illusion paintings.
One wall features landscapes by First Nations great Albert Namatjira and his descendants, spanning 1950 to 2020, while Brisbane artist Sandra Selig’s Mid-air is a striking hanging piece made from nylon thread and tiny styrofoam balls.
One popular interactive piece is Project: Another Country by Filipino-Australian artists Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan.
“People can make their own airplane using cardboard and other found materials,” Cull said.
The exhibition’s opening weekend (June 28-29) coincides with family event the Wonderstruck Festival, featuring concerts, talks, face painting and food trucks.
The Obliteration Room was most recently at the NGV in Melbourne for the most popular contemporary art exhibition ever staged in Australia, Yayoi Kusama, with half a million tickets sold.
Cull said Wonderstruck’s theme was art offering a refuge or sanctuary during times of turmoil.
“This exhibition provides opportunities to feel uplifted or to think deeply about the essence of life,” she said.
“Wonder is not about escaping reality, it’s about what it is to be alive, and noticing things that might otherwise have just passed you by.”
Wonderstruck runs from June 28 to October 6 at GOMA.