KUSAMA: INFINITY: A Heartfelt Piece Of Filmmaking

Kusama: Infinity is the film based on the life and work of Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, who is most famous for her infinity rooms, which are essentially halls of mirrors designed to look like they go on forever. The rooms themselves contain a series of (usually different-coloured) LED lights which turn the rooms into a carnivalesque space.

The documentary was written and directed by Heather Lenz, who has no familial relation to Kusama, but she may as well have: she’s been researching her art since the nineties, and was fascinated by the work she was creating long before she became the top-selling female artist in the world. Given that fact, the documentary isn’t only about the art itself, but Kusama as a public figure, and how she existed within the very conservative New York art scene between the 1950s and the 1970s, and how in turn that affected her mental health and her work.

The artist herself

The most interesting thing about the documentary is that, although a lot of it consists of professional art critics and gallery owners speaking about her, it also contains excerpts from interviews with Kusama herself, which gives more credence to some of the more radical claims in the documentary (namely, that her ideas were stolen by other, more prominent artists.) The reasons to believe her are obvious: Kusama is already established as an incredibly influential and successful artist—she has no reason to make any of the claims up, and you learn from the documentary itself that highlighting hidden truths has been a major part of her work.

There are sequences in the documentary that show her selling her sculptures, part of the now-famous “Narcissus Garden,” for two dollars each at the 33^rd Venice Biennale, a stunt designed to highlight the egoism and elitism that were (and are) intrinsically linked to the art world. Similarly, Kusama notoriously organised anti-war protests, which often involved nudity, and held America’s first gay-wedding as a pro-LGBT rights protest.

A film-maker doing her best work

Surprisingly, the fact that Heather Lenz is so enamoured with Kusama as a public figure is never really to the documentary’s detriment. There’s very little sensationalism in Kusama: Infinity. The facts are, of course, delivered over inventive cinematography or pictures and footage of Kusama creating or performing her own artwork, but it’s a documentary with no embellishment of the truth, which is completely to Lenz’s credit. The biggest problem with most documentaries, even ones I tend to agree with, is that they often discredit their own argument by omitting facts which contradict their statements – that’s never a problem with this one.

However, Kusama: Infinity isn’t a perfect film, and I think that’s largely to do with its length. There are many aspects of Kusama’s life which are glossed over. There are things which are spoken about in the documentary, including Kusama’s poor mental health and Matsumoto City’s (where Kusama grew up) relationship with her controversial public persona, that I would have liked to know more about.

I think, ultimately, Heather Lenz wanted to make a documentary that expressed her admiration for Kusama’s work so much, that she neglected to give enough contextual information about many aspects of her work which would help novices engage properly with it. The documentary does work on the basis that its audience has either a basic knowledge, or none at all, of Kusama. There isn’t much in it that a Kusama scholar wouldn’t already know, and it ends up falling into a strange middle ground, and ultimately never really caters to either groups of people.

Kusama: Infinity: Conclusion

Still, Kusama: Infinity is a very heartfelt documentary, and what is included is informative and well put together. Although it may be in broad strokes, it does paint Kusama authentically, and gets across what she means for the art world, and what she means to her fans. Kusama is portrayed as a tragic figure, but simultaneously a very strong and hopeful one.

Heather Lenz understands that there’s something inherently inspiring about someone like Yayoi Kusama, who had several forces much bigger than herself working against her, and despite all of that, and all of the ire towards her, was uncompromising and threw herself into her work completely. The documentary is a great introduction to her life and work, but it will definitely leave you wanting to seek out more information. It’s a worthwhile documentary, just don’t expect it to be as life-changing as the artist herself.

Are you looking forward to the film? Let us know in the comments.

Kusama – Infinity will be released on 7th September. Find more information here.