Outcome

Intention

Work

Red Pumpkin. This is a famous sculpture work of Kusama which features her most well-known pumpkin theme.

I read her biography and visited Naoshima, where two of her pumpkin sculptures reside.

It was an interesting experience for me to visit the sculpture.

The sculpture gave me distinct impressions when I visited it at different time periods.

During the day it's an odd construction with holes that perfectly camouflaged themselves with other dots on the surface on the pumpkin.

During the night the holes start to emit light because inside the pumpkin, there are lights installed on the ground that people won't easily pay attention to during the day.

Kusama uses the pumpkin to express her own world.

When I was looking at the pumpkin, it predominates my view. At the port of Naoshima, though it stands there on its own without any companies, I felt it was just because of its exclusiveness that it uses all of its surrounding to emphasize its existence, just like Yayoi Kusama's inner desire of getting noticed.

Approach

I want to demonstrate the desire of emphasizing oneself further by making it overwhelming just like the pattern of the pumpkin, the holes that lie between normal dots but open the way for people to look into and emit mysterious light in the evening.

Product

I simulated the way that Kusama views the pattern: the land is filled with her desire and instead of sunshine, pumpkin and dots take over the role of lighting up the land, and everything is immersed in the repetitive pattern.

Reflection

I think I captured Yayoi Kusama's mind in a unique way. The pumpkin is basically about loneliness, predominance, and inner desire of getting noticed. And I altered the original photograph in a way such that those elements are either emphasized or visualized.