Comments on: No, not the obit kind of dots.

No, not the obit kind of dots.

ricochet biscuit — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 13:41:54 -0800

This is what happens when you give thousands of stickers to thousands of kids. (SLArtFilter)

This December, in a surprisingly simple yet ridiculously amazing installation for the Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane, artist Yayoi Kusama (previously on the blue) constructed a large domestic environment, painting every wall, chair, table, piano, and household decoration a brilliant white, effectively serving as a giant white canvas. Over the course of two weeks, the museum's smallest visitors were given thousands upon thousands of colored dot stickers and were invited to collaborate in the transformation of the space, turning the house into a vibrantly mottled explosion of color.

By: WaspEnterprises

WaspEnterprises — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 13:50:35 -0800

Somewhere, Lisa Frank is smiling.

By: hincandenza

hincandenza — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 13:52:54 -0800

... in the Alps.

By: leotrotsky

leotrotsky — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 13:52:55 -0800

OMG yes. That said, this is a great proof of that old bromide about great artists "knowing when to stop."

This is just about perfect.

By: Namlit

Namlit — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 13:53:49 -0800

This is mind-blowingly beautiful! A visualisation of time, of many people making use of the same space. This is how accumulated teamwork looks like: colorful. We need this on a bleak 2nd of January!

By: Kid Charlemagne

Kid Charlemagne — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 13:55:15 -0800

I'd love to see this as a video because I'd love to know if all the designs (faces, little people and creatures, etc.) are one kid doing all their dots at once, or a collaboration over time.

By: greenhornet

greenhornet — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 13:57:01 -0800

Love it! I think it needs an ending though... at the end of the two weeks, all the kids should be brought back and made to watch the stickers being removed. This will teach them that inspiration and creativity are not really tolerated in the real world... and that all their dreams will eventually be crushed. Good life experiences!

By: xingcat

xingcat — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 13:59:09 -0800

About halfway through the photos, I thought, "I want to live in that room," and then more and more dots were added and I thought, "I would go insane in that room," and then I couldn't look anymore. Love the project.

By: leotrotsky

leotrotsky — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 14:02:20 -0800

I love this website. Thank you for sharing it.
Book Sculpture Landscapes! Tiny Cut Steel Flower Fields!
Black Bouncy Ball Art!
Wall of Heights!

By: The Whelk

The Whelk — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 14:03:33 -0800

Oh I love when it crosses the line from cute! Awesome! To disturbing! Maddening! It's like a joke that isn't funny, then becomes funny through repetition, then isn't funny again. Theoretically if we add more stickers it'll be charming again. Also I'd want some glitter and or holographic stickers.

By: NoraCharles

NoraCharles — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 14:05:04 -0800

Love how kids think - all the colors were all mixed up - none were sorted into groups. Wish we'd all stay that way.

By: facetious

facetious — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 14:05:29 -0800

it's a great idea. it's like a dozen different installations in one, morphing from one to the next over time.

By: The Whelk

The Whelk — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 14:06:07 -0800

Also I enjoy anything designed to piss off minimalists.

By: breakfast_yeti

breakfast_yeti — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 14:08:59 -0800

Clearly a viral Wonder Bread ad campaign.

By: chavenet

chavenet — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 14:42:04 -0800

Oh I love when it crosses the line from cute! Awesome! To disturbing! Maddening! It's like a joke that isn't funny, then becomes funny through repetition, then isn't funny again. Very like kids, to be sure.

By: charlie don't surf

charlie don't surf — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 14:57:07 -0800

Seems familiar.

By: scalefree

scalefree — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 15:01:04 -0800

I really like how the first girl, even before she starts placing her dots on things, has a couple of them on herself to start off with.

By: gwint

gwint — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 15:06:08 -0800

Kids: The ultimate random number generators.

By: Mcable

Mcable — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 15:10:06 -0800

This made me very happy.

By: tommasz

tommasz — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 15:10:32 -0800

It's like a rainbow sneezed.

By: mothershock

mothershock — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 15:14:11 -0800

I saw the photos online before I realized who the artist was, and once I saw the dots, I knew it was Kusama! This summer we saw an exhibit of her work in Madrid, and it was amazing -- and filled with many rooms exploring this idea of dots and color and space. There was one room that was kind of the inverse of this -- a regular, furnished room with regular furniture, as though we'd stumbled into someone's studio apartment, except everything was dark, and in blacklight. All over the room, though, were fluorescent dot stickers, which, in the blacklight, appeared to be floating in space. After leaving that room, though, and traveling through another with sculptures of hers and letters she'd saved and sketchbooks from the 60s and 70s, we discovered another -- this one was total blackness, interrupted by what appeared to be strings of Christmas lights, hanging straight down from the ceiling. The floor was a narrow black pathway surrounded by water, which reflected the lights. The walls were mirrors, reflecting the lights and the viewers, who carefully tried to find their way through the disorienting space. The lights themselves morphed from one color to another, making the whole place feel immense and magical and in constant motion -- and then, suddenly, the lights would go out completely, leaving everyone in complete darkness. The audible gasp from everyone who was there to witness it felt like part of the exhibit, as did the nervous silence as we all waited for the twinkling lights to come on again, and the quiet laughter when it finally did. There is something so joyous and playful about her work with dots and rooms and space and color and light and darkness. I love how this room began as a kind of blank canvas that the viewers themselves helped paint.

By: bpm140

bpm140 — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 15:27:21 -0800

This is what happens when you give thousands of stickers to thousands of kids. The result was not a surprise to any parent.

By: charlie don't surf

charlie don't surf — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 15:27:30 -0800

There is something so joyous and playful about her work with dots and rooms and space and color and light and darkness. And also a strong subtext of insanity and danger. I was at a Kusama retrospective in Tokyo. In one dark, mirrored room, I became disoriented and fell down. I needed help getting to the exit.

By: ZenMasterThis

ZenMasterThis — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 15:32:18 -0800

Very nice, but I could've gotten the job done in five minutes with a paintball machine gun.

By: pjenks

pjenks — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 15:34:16 -0800

This reminds me of my favorite Christmas book.

By: lisa g

lisa g — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 15:42:23 -0800

I think I have an idea for my son's next birthday party.

By: Stan Carey

Stan Carey — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 15:59:17 -0800

That's brilliant. I wish I could play.

By: motty

motty — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 16:38:55 -0800

You can play, Stan, sort of. Click here then on 'Yayoi Kusama's World Of Dots' at the bottom right.

By: Miko

Miko — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 16:49:09 -0800

What, 27 comments and not one "my kid could do that" joke? Could you ever hope for a better setup? Love how kids think - all the colors were all mixed up - none were sorted into groups. Wish we'd all stay that way. But, speaking as a former K-1-2 teacher, there are lots of kids that do have the instinct to sort and organize. There are kids that will want to set up patterns and control outcomes. Kids like that will find this sort of thing really frustrating - the way lots of people can find this frustrating. What I like about it is what The Whelk gets at in his comment. At first it's exuberant, cute, and quirky, but it crosses over into chaotic excesses that are actually distracting, disturbing, and the opposite of comforting. It's the perfect allegory for what kids without the boundaries set by adults are like.

By: Miko

Miko — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 16:49:48 -0800

This was supposed to be this, which is nowhere near as frustrating now as when it was new and there were like 30 people in the room.

By: sammyo

sammyo — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 17:00:00 -0800

"Metafilter is lol" (just so YOU know I was there)

By: Dr.Enormous

Dr.Enormous — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 17:30:41 -0800

But, speaking as a former K-1-2 teacher, there are lots of kids that do have the instinct to sort and organize. There are kids that will want to set up patterns and control outcomes. If you look closely at the pictures of the room, you can even see where a lot of the kids have clearly tried to make their own patterns and sorting, only to be layered over by other patterns or the more disorganized children. The room speaks more to the jumbled and chaotic nature of crowds than the nature of individual children. (My son would absolutely freak out in this room and refuse to leave until he had moved all the stickers to where he wanted them)

By: Miko

Miko — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 18:09:34 -0800

The room speaks more to the jumbled and chaotic nature of crowds than the nature of individual children. Yeah, you could say that.

By: book 'em dano

book 'em dano — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 18:50:29 -0800

P.S. Mefi's Own joinks runs Colossal from the first link. His site was also linked previously. I became a big fan of the site after that post.

By: yellowcandy

yellowcandy — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 20:14:49 -0800

This would be my own little Pokemon seizure room, but I kind of love it all the same.

By: RobotVoodooPower

RobotVoodooPower — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 20:18:56 -0800

"Little Dot" was a comic about a girl who liked to put dots on everything.

By: pearlybob

pearlybob — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 21:54:35 -0800

I bought an unfinished bookshelf for my son. And I told him that he could put stickers on it, just not on the books. We have a HUGE art room, decked out with everything.. I'm a former art teacher and his older sister is an art nut!! Doesn't matter. He likes to do stickers on that bookshelf. So I get him stickers, and listen to him sing while he decorates. Magic!! I think little folks can control them and feel like they are designing. Fine by me. And love the post!

By: Surfurrus

Surfurrus — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 00:13:45 -0800

Yes, kids doing art freely is amazing. I may have posted my children-art project before -- I let kids paint my car with 'puffy paints' -- we worked on it for about a year (and even let some adults in on it once in a while) they even painted inside!: http://vimeo.com/28702493

By: clarknova

clarknova — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 01:17:05 -0800

Stochastic process is stochastic.

By: whatzit

whatzit — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 03:36:52 -0800

Fun stuff in the link and in the rest of the blog, thank you. Kusama has a lot more wild art. Another room installation along these lines that is or was at the Kusama exhibit at the Centre Pompidou is covered in a regular pattern of flourescent-colored office stickers, each about 4 cm in diameter, and the whole room is lit in black lights. I don't know what the hell it was supposed to mean, but it was certainly fun to be in. She has had a very unusual life, spending years living a sort of crazy-artist-life in New York before returning to Japan in a deep depression after a number of unfortunate events, where she checked herself into an institution and has been living since the late 1970s. I had no idea about any of this before seeing the exhibit at Pompidou, but she has one of those life stories that really shows in her art and sticks with you after you have left the museum.

By: ersatzkat

ersatzkat — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 05:04:23 -0800

Love the linked artwork - the name of the artist was driving me batshit with feathery, peripheral recognition. Some googling down a rabbit hole led me to realize she's the same Yayoi I read about in this biography of Joseph Cornell.

By: roboton666

roboton666 — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 02:52:26 -0800

Needs more glitter

By: h00py

h00py — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 00:15:08 -0800

My kids and I were there today! We added colour to the room and then we saw Amanda Palmer play in the forecourt. My son inspired a Rhumba line to Coin Operated Boy (he's the one in front - powered by both coins and sugar).