It is impossible to ignore: the glossy metal legs contort in the air like the tentacles of a giant black and yellow polka-dotted octopus dancing inside the grey halls of the National Gallery of Victoria.
To the untrained eye, the five-metre bronze sculpture may look like a life form from another galaxy but for those familiar with Japanese-born provocateur Yayoi Kusama, the structure is far from extraterrestrial.
The monumental Dancing Pumpkin sculpture by Yayoi Kusama at the NGV.Credit: Luis Ascui
The artwork represents a constant subject of the 95-year-old’s creative work, the humble pumpkin, and forms the centrepiece of the gallery’s summer blockbuster – a retrospective exhibition of Kusama’s trailblazing career.
The sculpture, titled Dancing Pumpkin, will be among nearly 200 works by Kusama on display at NGV International from mid-December, the largest exhibition of her artistic work ever put on show in Australia.
The exhibition, a labour of love five years in the making, will feature works by Kusama spanning eight decades, from drawings she did as a child to fully immersive mirror rooms purposely designed for the gallery.
NGV senior curator of Asian art Wayne Crothers said the gallery had to reinforce the floor and strategically position Dancing Pumpkin above underground columns in order to put it on display inside Federation Court, which sits above a subterranean carpark.
“There’s only three parts that touch the ground, and another eight tentacles that are all levitating off the ground, so structurally and engineering-wise, it’s an incredible piece of sculpture,” Crothers said.
The artwork, which weighs about nine tonnes, had to be transported to Melbourne from Washington in 12 individual crates wrapped in plastic and was assembled inside the building over five days using a crane and detailed instructions from Kusama’s studio (very much like a giant IKEA flat-pack piece of furniture).
The sculpture, which is an iteration of two others previously put on display in Qatar and New York, has been acquired by the NGV through the Loti & Victor Smorgon Fund and will become a main feature of the planned sculpture garden at the new NGV Contemporary precinct, due to open to the public in 2028.
Crothers said the exhibition, which will also include archival materials and artworks from Kusama’s private collection, will be the largest exhibition for a practising artist, a female artist and an Asian artist ever held at the NGV.
Kusama’s pink and black waterfall artwork at the NGV.Credit: Luis Ascui
Kusama, who grew up on a seed and plant farm in Matsumoto, in regional Japan, began painting pumpkins (technically a fruit, not a vegetable) in her teenage years. Pumpkins – and, later on, polka dots – became an iconic part of her creative expression, which continued to evolve as she experimented with her art.
“She has often talked about how she is very emotionally attached to this sort of humble vegetable, that provided nourishment in the austerity years after the Second World War,” senior curator of international exhibitions Miranda Wallace said.
“To see this late variation of the pumpkin dancing, taking up this sort of carefree, joyous movement that you see in the sculpture … it’s really inspiring to see an artist still engaging with this idea over the years.”
Yayoi Kusama. Her NGV show has been five years in preparation.Credit: Yusuke Miyazaki/Ota Fine Arts
Wallace said Kusama had even written poems about pumpkins, which will also be on display at the gallery. The exhibition will also include archival materials, huge inflatables on display in the Great Hall, a free kids exhibition, and artworks from Kusama’s private collection.
Over the next few weeks, staff from the galleries, museums, and collections lending Kusama’s pieces to the NGV will travel to Melbourne to help set up the ticketed exhibition, which will run from December 15 to April 21.
However, visitors to the gallery can see Dancing Pumpkin and a pink and black polka-dot artwork designed for the NGV waterfall for free from Saturday. Additional pieces such as a sprawling installation of 1400 mirrored spheres will also be on display, free of charge, from December 15.
“I think it’s incredibly engaging visually and in its form,” Wallace said. “I think people will be drawn like a magnet to this sculpture.”
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