Yayoi Kusama's Five-Metre-Tall (and Dot-Covered) 'Dancing Pumpkin' Sculpture Is Now on Display in Australia
The yellow-and-black artwork has been unveiled at Melbourne's NGV International ahead of the gallery's summer 'Yayoi Kusama' exhibition.
Halloween has been and gone for 2024, but Australia isn't done with peering at pumpkins yet. One of the most stunning sights to see in the country right now, and on an ongoing basis, is a giant gourd that stands five metres tall. The fact that it's yellow and black, and also covered in polka dots, explains why this is such a spectacular piece of art: it's one of Yayoi Kusama's famous pumpkin sculptures.
Back in April, Melbourne's NGV International promised that the end of 2024 and beginning of 2025 would be filled with spots and gourds when it announced Yayoi Kusama, its big summer blockbuster exhibition. Featuring 180-plus works from the Japanese artist, the retrospective opens on Sunday, December 15, displaying until Monday, April 21. Ahead of that launch, however, Dancing Pumpkin has already arrived — and been unveiled for gallery visitors to enjoy.
Open to the public since Saturday, November 8, 2024 in NGV International's Federation Court, the 2020 piece is making its Australian debut. Until now, only two editions of it had been seen anywhere on the planet, initially in 2021 at the New York Botanical Garden and then in 2022–3 at the Museum of Islamic Art in Qatar. Yayoi Kusama itself is also a first, as a world-premiere that Aussie art lovers can only check out in the Victorian capital.
Gourds and dots are among Kusama's trademarks, with Dancing Pumpkin combining the two in one of her biggest pumpkin sculptures of her career. Its towering height and legs in various poses — hence the name — means that visitors literally look up at the artwork. You can also wander beneath it.
While checking out not just Dancing Pumpkin but the Yayoi Kusama exhibition overall is a summer must, the former is sticking around, with the piece acquired by the NGV.
"We're delighted to unveil Yayoi Kusama's breathtaking Dancing Pumpkin sculpture ahead of our major exhibition surveying the artist's groundbreaking career. The newly acquired work, supported through the generosity of the Loti & Victor Smorgon Fund, will leave a defining impact on the NGV Collection and will be available for all Victorians to enjoy for many years to come," said NGV Director Tony Ellwood AM.
When we say that this Kusama showcase, is big, we mean it. While the Japanese artist's work is no stranger to Aussie shores — and was the focus of a comprehensive showcase at Brisbane's Gallery of Modern Art back in 2017–18 — NGV International's ode to the iconic talent is the largest that the country has ever seen. Among its highlights is another of Kusama's usual fascinations: kaleidoscopic reflections. Visitors will also be able to scope out the world-premiere showing of a brand-new infinity mirror.
The NGV has curated Yayoi Kusama with input from Kusama, with the end result stepping through the 95-year-old artist's eight decades of making art via a thematic chronology. Some pieces hail from her childhood. Some are recent. Her output in her hometown of Matsumoto from the late 30s–50s; the results of relocating to America in 1957; archival materials covering her performances and activities in her studios, especially with a political charge, in the 60s and 70s: they'll all appear.
Half of the exhibition is devoted to the past four decades — so, pumpkins galore; giant paintings; and an impressive and expansive range of room installations, complete with her very first infinity room from 1965, plus creative interpretations since from the 80s onwards. Again, this is a hefty exhibition. It's one of the most-comprehensive Kusama retrospectives ever staged globally (and the closest that you'll get to experiencing her Tokyo museum without leaving Australia).
Basically, wherever you look across NGV International's ground level, Kusama works will be waiting, spanning paintings, installations, sketches, drawings, collages and sculptures, as well as videos and clothing. For the first time in the country, 2019's THE HOPE OF THE POLKA DOTS BURIED IN INFINITY WILL ETERNALLY COVER THE UNIVERSE will unleash its six-metre-high tentacles — as also speckled with yellow-and-black polka dots.
One section of the gallery will replicate Kusama's New York studio. Over 20 experimental fashion designs by the artist will also demand attention. Infinity Net paintings from the 50s and 60s, Accumulation sculptures and textiles from the 60s and 70s, and a Kusama for Kids offshoot with all-ages interactivity (fingers crossed for an obliteration room) are also on their way.
Almost six decades since first debuting at 1966's Venice Biennale — unofficially — Narcissus Garden will be a part of Yayoi Kusama, too, in a new version made of 1400 30-centimetre-diameter stainless silver balls. Now that's how you open an exhibition, as this will. NGV's Waterwall is also scoring a Kusama artwork specific to the space, while the Great Hall will be filled with the giant balloons of Dots Obsession floating overhead.
Yayoi Kusama, 2022 © YAYOI KUSAMA
Dancing Pumpkin is on display at NGV International, St Kilda Road, Melbourne until Monday, April 21, 2025. Yayoi Kusama runs from Sunday, December 15, 2024–Monday, April 21, 2025. Head to the NGV website for more details and tickets.
Images: Yayoi Kusama's Dancing Pumpkin 2020 now on display for the Yayoi Kusama exhibition at NGV International, Melbourne until 21 April 2025. © YAYOI KUSAMA. Photo: Sean Fennessy.
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