Latest / The Front / 96-year-old superstar artist Yayoi Kusama’s next move

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96-year-old superstar artist Yayoi Kusama’s next move · The Front

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  Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
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  Speaker 1: It's Monday, January five, twenty twenty six. The world wakes
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  Speaker 1: today to a new Donald Trump shaped global order, with
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  Speaker 1: the United States appointing itself to govern Venezuela after capturing
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  Speaker 1: law enforcement and the Venezuelan military, We're going.
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  Speaker 2: biggest anywhere in the.
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  Speaker 1: broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for
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  Speaker 1: new national security strategy in November twenty twenty five, which
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  Speaker 1: set out Trump's vision for a new world order. The
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  Speaker 1: strategy endorsed the so called Monroe Doctrine. That's a principle
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  Speaker 1: from the eighteen twenties that rejects European colonialism in the
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  Speaker 1: so called New World and asserts America's right to complete
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  Speaker 1: independence from European affairs. Trump said he would use the
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  Speaker 1: strengthening new partners in economic and security cooperation. The Venezuela mission,
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  Speaker 1: where America is removing what it calls a corrupt and
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  Speaker 1: broken government, is the first enactment of the Trump Corollary.
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  Speaker 1: This story is moving fast and you can follow it
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  Speaker 1: live at the Australian dot Com. Today on the Front,
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  Speaker 1: we're stepping back into a moment that captivated Australians in
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  Speaker 1: twenty twenty five. The unrivaled superstar of art right now
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  Speaker 1: is a Japanese nonagenarian named Yayoi Kosama. She lives a
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  Speaker 1: reclusive life in a psychiatric facility in Japan, but thanks
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  Speaker 1: to Instagram, she's never more popular. Today. Chief Culture Correspondent
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  Speaker 1: Tim Douglas joins The Front's Kristin Amiot to explore why
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  Speaker 1: Kasama is such a big deal and how her work
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  Speaker 1: created the biggest moment in the Australian art scene over
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  Speaker 1: the past year. The magical works of a ninety five
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  Speaker 1: year old Japanese artist are bound for Melbourne.
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  Speaker 2: Vibrant color reflections, pumpkins and polka dots are set to
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  Speaker 2: swamp the entire ground floor of the National Gallery this summer.
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  Speaker 3: I think the mirror rooms are going to blow people away.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, if you saw it.
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  Speaker 1: The Tate had two mirror rooms for about a year
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  Speaker 1: and there were cues of people coming in every day.
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  Speaker 1: We're talking far.
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  Speaker 3: More than that. Yea, Yoi Kasama won't see it in person,
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  Speaker 3: as she doesn't leave Japan, but gallery staff say her
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  Speaker 3: blessing has made it possible. Tim Douglas is the Australian's
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  Speaker 3: chief culture correspondent, What did you think of it?
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  Speaker 2: It was kind of seismic actually for the art industry
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  Speaker 2: in Australia. And it wasn't just the big instagrammable works
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  Speaker 2: that we know. The beauty of that show was that
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  Speaker 2: a really charted Kassama's career from very humble beginnings and
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  Speaker 2: some of those infinity paintings she did those really subtle,
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  Speaker 2: almost mindful works into these kind of gargantua and inflatable,
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  Speaker 2: almost garish works that we know her for. In the
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  Speaker 2: twenty first.
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  Speaker 3: Century, Australians in particular seem to love Jayokasama's art. I
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  Speaker 3: spent a long time in the gift shop at the MGV,
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  Speaker 3: wandering around looking for something to take home that I
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  Speaker 3: could fit in my bag on the plane. There were
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  Speaker 3: so many beautiful trinkets and books, and I actually settled
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  Speaker 3: on a children's book with little punction shaped children's book
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  Speaker 3: that was all about different types of spots. They were
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  Speaker 3: all different colors and textures and that sort of thing,
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  Speaker 3: and I thought that just represented not only the exhibition
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  Speaker 3: but her really well, what do you think think it
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  Speaker 3: is that makes Australians in particular gravitate to Yao Kassama's work.
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  Speaker 2: It's interesting, I mean, obviously geographically we're not so far away.
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  Speaker 2: Australia has a complicated and very interesting relationship with Japan
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  Speaker 2: from World War Two onwards. Of course, Kasama's involvement in
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  Speaker 2: that particular conflict was visceral in itself. I mean, she
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  Speaker 2: was a child working in a munition's factory making parachutes
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  Speaker 2: for the war effort. And I think it's interesting that
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  Speaker 2: you chose a children's book because much of Kassama's comes
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  Speaker 2: from her childhood, which wasn't in the story. She tells
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  Speaker 2: about it a particularly pleasant experience. She grew up in
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  Speaker 2: a nursery, very strict parents. Her mother tore up any
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  Speaker 2: artwork she might have made. She has spoken in the
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  Speaker 2: past very honestly about the hallucinations she experienced as a child,
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  Speaker 2: seeing these polka dots in front of her eyes, which
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  Speaker 2: is representation of her mental state. The pumpkins that she
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  Speaker 2: drawls and perhaps were a big part of that book
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  Speaker 2: you bought. It's a direct line to her childhood and
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  Speaker 2: the pumpkins that were grown at this seedling plant, this
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  Speaker 2: nursery where she grew up. Why do Australians love Kassama
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  Speaker 2: so much? It's a great question. I mean, were you
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  Speaker 2: to ask our art critic Christah Allen, he doesn't particularly
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  Speaker 2: like her work, he doesn't particularly value it, and there
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  Speaker 2: are a lot of very serious critics around the world
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  Speaker 2: who don't rate Kasama's work. However, as evidenced by you know,
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  Speaker 2: almost six hundred thousand streaming through the doors of the
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  Speaker 2: MGV over the course of four months, Australians clearly do
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  Speaker 2: love Kasama's work. She's shown here in the past in
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  Speaker 2: very popular shows and I think there is something to
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  Speaker 2: be said for the Instagram factor about her work, and
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  Speaker 2: so people want to share that and I think, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: there's a certain amount of street cred that comes with
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  Speaker 2: these days, with sharing that sort of moment. So it's
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  Speaker 2: a great question whether Australians really do love that art
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  Speaker 2: or they just wanted to be part of something special.
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  Speaker 2: And I think it was a momentous occasion for the
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  Speaker 2: art world. Irrespective of value critically of her.
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  Speaker 3: Artwork, Jaokasama was already well known in the art world
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  Speaker 3: prior to the advent of social media. Do you think
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  Speaker 3: that she would have had the mass appeal that she
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  Speaker 3: has in Australia and around the world if not for
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  Speaker 3: the Instagram factor, Or do you think that has just
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  Speaker 3: supercharged what was an already successful career in art.
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  Speaker 2: Her career is really interesting because, as I said, a
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  Speaker 2: very kind of complicated childhood and a complicated mental state
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  Speaker 2: meant that she had trouble making her name. In Japan,
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  Speaker 2: she studied Nihonga painting and then had this great affinity
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  Speaker 2: with the natural world and contacted great American painter and
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  Speaker 2: pioneering female artists in the States. Georgia O'Keeffe sent her
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  Speaker 2: a letter and this letter is was in the show,
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  Speaker 2: which is amazing. Georgia O'Keeffe wrote a letter back saying,
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  Speaker 2: come to America and you can do great things. And
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  Speaker 2: she did go to America and then began making work
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  Speaker 2: with Donald jard around the time of Andy Warhol, et
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  Speaker 2: cetera in that time, but didn't get to where she
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  Speaker 2: wanted to go. But she had a very serious mental breakdown,
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  Speaker 2: culminating in a suicide attempt, which meant she went home.
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  Speaker 2: In nineteen seventy three, she checked herself into a mental
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  Speaker 2: facility in Tokyo and she's lived there ever since. It
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  Speaker 2: was mister Tatihata, who was the boss of the National
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  Speaker 2: Museum in Osaka at the time, who in the eighties
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  Speaker 2: reconnected with Kassama and resurrected her career with a retrospective
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  Speaker 2: that coincided with a shift I suppose in society. It
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  Speaker 2: was before the advent, of course, of the digital revolution,
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  Speaker 2: but it wasn't far away, and I think Kasama's really
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  Speaker 2: ridden that wave. Certainly, she's in the sweet spot right
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  Speaker 2: now in terms of social media, but yeah, I mean,
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  Speaker 2: her popularity really kind of soared before social media, so
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  Speaker 2: there is something about her work connects with people in
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  Speaker 2: a very real and visceral way.
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  Speaker 3: Do you think that the average punter who goes along
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  Speaker 3: to see an exhibition like this, or sees Yo Cassama's
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  Speaker 3: work in a book or wherever, actually registers those themes
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  Speaker 3: or are they just taking it at face value?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah? Look, I think there's a certain section of people
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  Speaker 2: who just want to be there for the occasion, who
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  Speaker 2: want to be part of the cool show that's happening
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  Speaker 2: in town. But I think the beauty of that show
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  Speaker 2: that we are speaking about in Melbourne was that it
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  Speaker 2: was done in the chronological way, and it really kind
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  Speaker 2: of showed that evolution of not just the artist, but
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  Speaker 2: the woman, because the woman she is now. And I
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  Speaker 2: know this from having spoken to mister Tatiato, who's one
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  Speaker 2: of her closest friends. You know, she's apparently a very
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  Speaker 2: funny person. She calls him at two in the morning
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  Speaker 2: and says, you need to come over here because I'm
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  Speaker 2: going to hurt myself unless you do. So he gets
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  Speaker 2: in a cab and this man's eighty years old himself.
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  Speaker 2: He gets in a cab and races over and she
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  Speaker 2: starts laughing and saying, why are you here? What are
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  Speaker 2: you doing? You know, And so she kind of I
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  Speaker 2: was speaking to her galerist as well, who said, at
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  Speaker 2: the time he sold one of her pumpkins for some
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  Speaker 2: phenomenal amount of money, let's say ten million dollars, and
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  Speaker 2: he showed her the check and said, you're happy with this?
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  Speaker 2: And she put another zero at the end and said,
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  Speaker 2: now I'm happy with.
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  Speaker 1: It, you know. And so I respect that.
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  Speaker 2: I respect that. And so she's by all accounts a
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  Speaker 2: very kind of singular human. She's now in her late
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  Speaker 2: nineties and she lives still in this institution with twenty
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  Speaker 2: four hour care and a very close group of trusted
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  Speaker 2: confidants who support her. She has no family left, and
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  Speaker 2: she had a very complicated relationship with that family. But
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  Speaker 2: I think the bauity of that show was that it
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  Speaker 2: was so well done that anyone with an interest in
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  Speaker 2: the woman herself and her art and you know, saw
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  Speaker 2: that couch of Fallis's and wondered, why is it a
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  Speaker 2: couch of Fallises? And then you realize that she witnessed
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  Speaker 2: her father having an affair as a child and engendered
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  Speaker 2: in her an immediate fear of sex that she carried
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  Speaker 2: with her through her life, into her personal relationships and beyond.
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  Speaker 1: Coming up more of Kristen Amiot's chat with Chief Culture
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  Speaker 1: correspondent Tim Douglas.
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  Speaker 3: She is, as you said, living in a facility that
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  Speaker 3: she's been in for decades. She is, for all intents
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  Speaker 3: and purposes, a recluse. But then she's on billboards in
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  Speaker 3: Times Square, she's doing a collaboration with Louis Verton, she's
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  Speaker 3: got the biggest ever exhibition at the MGV. Is she
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  Speaker 3: kind of a contradiction in that way, and that she
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  Speaker 3: seems to want to keep to herself. But yet she
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  Speaker 3: has such broad appeal and seems quite willing to engage
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  Speaker 3: with the commercial side of art and that sort of thing.
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  Speaker 3: Is that what makes her so unique?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it does feel that way. I mean, if you
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  Speaker 2: knew nothing of her mental state or where she lived,
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  Speaker 2: you'd think she was a hustler. I mean, you think
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  Speaker 2: she was a mover and shaker in that world, someone
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  Speaker 2: with great commercial mouse and interest in the fashion world
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  Speaker 2: and the world of finance. Look, whether that's true or not,
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  Speaker 2: I'm not sure, and I imagine very few people are
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  Speaker 2: because she doesn't give interviews and she really leaves her
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  Speaker 2: place of residence. But when I spoke to mister Taddy
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  Speaker 2: Harder about her, he said she produces work every day.
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  Speaker 2: And now she produces work because, in his words and
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  Speaker 2: in her words of her mental state, she needs to
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  Speaker 2: paint these things, these things that present themselves before her eyes.
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  Speaker 2: She needs to get that out of a system and
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  Speaker 2: to work every day. And so while she's not making
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  Speaker 2: large scale of pumpkins from hand, she's still drawing each day.
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  Speaker 2: And last year she embarked on a new sort of
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  Speaker 2: creative avenue where she began doing portraits of young Japanese people,
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  Speaker 2: and mister Tatty Harder at that point said it was
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  Speaker 2: a new sort of artistic avenue for her. We haven't
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  Speaker 2: seen any of those things in public at this point,
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  Speaker 2: but it seems very much to be some sort of
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  Speaker 2: response to her childhood, and so I think it's really interesting.
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  Speaker 2: The oldest she gets, the more perhaps introspective, she seems
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  Speaker 2: to be getting. But again it is a contradiction in
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  Speaker 2: a way, and she's so sought after. Of course, she
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  Speaker 2: was the highest selling artist in the world last year,
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  Speaker 2: a phenomenal amount of money still exchanging hands at the
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  Speaker 2: altar of her work, and so it's I think she's
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  Speaker 2: still the most interesting person in the art world, living
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  Speaker 2: or dead. I think at this point.
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  Speaker 3: They say that imitation is the greatest form of flattery,
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  Speaker 3: and I'm sure that there are already people out there
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  Speaker 3: trying to emulate what has made Yao Kasama so special
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  Speaker 3: for so long. Do you think there'll ever be another
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  Speaker 3: artist like her?
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  Speaker 2: I don't think so. I mean, this is a person
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  Speaker 2: who grew up in very conservative Japan and began experiencing
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  Speaker 2: serious mental deterioration as the onset of global war came.
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  Speaker 2: For a relatively small country, moved to New York at
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  Speaker 2: a seismic time for art and culture and society was
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  Speaker 2: chewed up and spat out. It's lived in a mental
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  Speaker 2: institution and somehow created a niche for herself as the
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  Speaker 2: world's highest and most saleable artist. I unless there's some
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  Speaker 2: who knows what's ahead on the horizon, But I mean,
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  Speaker 2: I think in terms of lived experience, few have seen
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  Speaker 2: what she's seen quite literally, and you know, I think she's,
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  Speaker 2: as I said earlier, it's kind of singular cultural icon
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  Speaker 2: of our time.
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  Speaker 1: Tim Douglas is The Australian's chief culture correspondent. You can
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: read all the latest in culture right now, plus all
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  Speaker 1: the best world and local news, at the Australian dot
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