National Gallery of Victoria
2017
Commissioned for the NGV Triennial, Flower Obsession (2017) revisits the origins of Yayoi Kusama’s art which she traces back to her childhood. As she describes, “One day, after gazing at a pattern of red flowers on the tablecloth, I looked up to see that the ceiling, the windows, and the columns seemed to be plastered with the same red floral pattern. I saw the entire room, my entire body, and the entire universe covered with red flowers, and in that instant my soul was obliterated.… This was not an illusion but reality itself.” The inaugural NGV Triennial in 2017 is an exhibition of contemporary art and design that presents current ideas, practices, and technologies in art, design, architecture, fashion and performance. The Triennial features the work of more than one hundred artists from over thirty countries. It includes established, mid-career, and emerging artists and designers with themes of the Body, Change, Movement, Time, and the Virtual. The current triennial challenges visitors to consider new directions in art and design: immersive interactive digital environments that respond to our presence and movement; collaborative design projects that explore the connection between design, production, community, and sustainability; works of art that bridge places, cultures, and histories; and new ways of looking that raise questions about how we think and experience the world.