Biocosmic

“Our earth is only one polka dot among a million stars in the cosmos. Polka dots are a way to infinity. When we obliterate nature and our bodies with polka dots, we become part of the unity of our environment.”

Growing up so close to her family’s plant nursery, Kusama felt a deep connection from a very early age with organic life which she saw in connection with cosmic spaces and dimensions. “Biocosmic” expresses how the earthbound and the celestial are one and the same for Kusama. She soon began to observe the anatomy of plants, their life cycles, and the union between heaven and earth. When the artist first explained the meaning of her characteristic polka dots, she compared them to heavenly bodies, interpreting them as cosmic symbols. Perhaps the most constant image of the biocosmic in her work is that of her idiosyncratic pumpkins, their surfaces strangely undulating and speckled, which Kusama identifies with a benevolent vegetable spirit and a reflection of her own soul. The artist’s attitude to nature reflects how she expresses both her alienation from the world and the expansive need to be one with the cosmos.