Wonderstruck
This huge free GOMA exhibition is all about awe and wonder, complete with works from Yayoi Kusama, Patricia Piccinini and Ai Weiwei.
Overview
Go on Brisbane, get dotty. When The Obliteration Room is on display, that's exactly what's on the agenda. Yayoi Kusama's famed interactive project doesn't just feature the circular shapes beloved by the iconic Japanese artist, as featuring in many of her pieces. Turning everyone who enters its space into a fellow contributor, this artwork is all about adding dots, more dots and then even more, all in sticker form, to completely fill every surface.
Here's how it works: you step inside a room that has been painted white from floor to ceiling. All surfaces, fixtures, furniture and objects are white — every single one. It's then up to each and every visitor to add spots of colour via those stickers. Kusama calls the process "obliteration", hence the piece's name. Joining in is as fun and therapeutic as it sounds.
The Obliteration Room and Brisbane have been intertwined since Kusama first conceived of the work, because it was developed for the Queensland Art Gallery in 2002. Since then, the piece has toured the world, but keeps returning to the River City — with its latest visit courtesy of the Gallery of Modern Art's huge new free Wonderstruck exhibition across Saturday, June 28–Monday, October 6, 2025.
Yuken Teruya / Japan b.1973 / Notice - Forest 2006 / Paper and glue / Dimensions variable / Purchased 2007. The Queensland Government's Gallery of Modern Art Acquisitions Fund / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Yuken Teruya
Part of QAGOMA's massive 2025 program, this showcase features over 100 works hailing from 70-plus international and Australian artists. As its name makes plain, this collection from is all about awe and wonder. Expect playful pieces, imaginative creations, and works big and small. Expect extraordinary art and everyday objects morphed into marvels, too — as well as an all-ages experience, as The Obliteration Room has long provided.
Indeed, while The Obliteration Room has always been a feature of GOMA's Children's Art Centre, witnessing and participating in the transformative process is a delight for big kids as well. That theme carries across Wonderstruck as a whole, whether it's also displaying pieces by Patricia Piccinini, Ai Weiwei and American artist Nick Cave, or from Ah Xian, Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, Gordon Hookey, Madeleine Kelly, Yvonne Koolmatrie, Ron Mueck, Craig Koomeeta, Jemima Wyman, Rosemary Laing, Sandra Selig, Gemma Smith, Yuken Teruya, Brian Robinson, Judy Watson and Louise Weaver.
Across its six chapters, other specific highlights span the wearable sculptures of HEARD from Cave; Piccinini's The Observer, featuring a child peering down from a stack of chairs; Ai Weiwei's Neolithic pottery painted in bright colours; vivid hues aplenty in Pip & Pop's Rainbow Bridge and Emily Floyd's Steiner Rainbow; Mueck's giant In Bed; and Connection from Slovenian artist Tobias Putrih, which turns cardboard boxes into an arch.
Or, Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan's contribution In Flight (Project: Another Country) will get you making sculptures fund materials to to the piece; Lightning for Neda by Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian is a mirror mosaic; and Notice — Forest from Yuken Teruya refashions shopping bags.
Ron Mueck / England b.1958 / In bed (installation view) 2005 / Mixed media / 161.9 x 649.9 x 395cm / Purchased 2008. Queensland Art Gallery Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Ron Mueck
Top images: Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian / Iran 1924 - 2019 / Lightning for Neda (installation view) 2009 / Mirror mosaic, reverse-glass painting, plaster on wood / Six panels: 300 x 200 x 25cm (each); 300 x 1200 x 25cm (overall) / The artist dedicates this work to the loving memory of her late husband Dr Abolbashar Farmanfarmaian. Purchased 2009. Queensland Art Gallery Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Monir Shaharoudy Farmanfarmaian.
Emily Floyd / Australia b.1972 / Steiner rainbow 2006 / Two-part epoxy paint on medium density fibreboard / Nine parts. Part a (dark blue): 54 x 131 x 60cm; part b (light blue): 82 x 160 x 60cm; part c (teal): 96 x 188 x 60cm; part d (dark green): 110 x 217 x 60cm; part e (light green): 124.5 x 245 x 60cm; part f (yellow): 139 x 275 x 60cm; part g (orange): 154 x 303 x 60cm; part h (light red): 166 x 334 x 60cm; part i (deep red): 180 x 362.5 x 60cm. / Gift of the artist through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation 2011. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Emily Floyd/ Courtesy: The artist and Anna Schwartz Gallery.
Yayoi Kusama / Japan b.1929 / The Obliteration Room (installation view) 2002–present / Furniture, white paint, dot stickers / Dimensions variable / Collaboration between Yayoi Kusama and Queensland Art Gallery. Commissioned by the Queensland Art Gallery. Gift of the artist through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation 2012 / Collection: QAGOMA, Brisbane / © Yayoi Kusama / Photograph: N Harth © QAGOMA.
Alfredo Juan Aquilizan / Philippines/Australia b.1962 / Maria Isabel Gaudinez-Aquilizan / Philippines/Australia b.1965 / In-flight (Project: Another Country) (installation view) 2009 / Courtesy and © Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan / Photograph: R Fulton © QAGOMA
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