Saturday 8 November 2008

Flower Obsession

I recently visited Museum Boijmans in Rotterdam to see their retrospective exhibition with works by the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama. Among the works were the video "Flower Obsession Gerbera" from 1999.


The obsessions of Kusama is in a way the opposite of the less is more spirit of ikebana. Still, I guess ikebana can also become an obsession [Obsession: an endless repetition of personal rituals to keep chaos on distance]. I know Kusama uses the repetitiv techniques in her own art to keep insanity away. Since I came directly from a kado program by Shambhala Rotterdam to this exhibition and my head was full of flowers, I kind of felt that Kusama was teasing me by pushing Gerberas down the neck of her clothes, and finally popping a single Gerbera in her mouth. Obsessed or just playing around - who is who?

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