‘Kusama’s Infinite Universe’ celebrates the works of visionary Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama and others in her greater creative community.

In dialogue with Yayoi Kusama: 1945 to Now, this programme spotlights Kusama’s life as an artist and key moments in her transnational career. In addition, it features the historical and contemporary moving image works of fellow artists and filmmakers, offering a visual response to Kusama’s career-long creative outpouring that evokes pivotal themes of Infinity, Accumulation, Radical Connectivity, Biocosmic, Death, and Force of Life.

'Kusama’s Infinite Universe’ opens with Kusama—Infinity, a documentary that traces the artist’s life from an upbringing in rural Japan and a creative life between continents to her meteoric rise as a global cultural icon of the twenty-first century. ‘Kusama's Circle: 1960s New York’ and 'Kusama's Circle: 1980s Tokyo’ spotlight the artist’s contributions to creative moments in contemporary art. The first highlights the critical role of women artists in the Fluxus community while the second pays tribute to the landmark art space Video Gallery SCAN, featuring works by Mako Idemitsu and Bill Viola.

Finally, two programmes of experimental film and avant-garde animation invite audiences to venture further into the visual imaginaries inspired by Kusama. Pioneering artists Oskar Fischinger, Mary Ellen Bute, Len Lye, Norman McLaren, Scott Bartlett, Al Razutis, Simon Payne, Michael Betancourt, and Takashi Makino are brought together for ‘The Patterned Screen’, a colourful survey of the techniques artists use to create patterns and repetitions with celluloid, video, and digital media. ‘The Biocosmic Fantastic’ presents a deep dive into the wondrous microcosms of organic materials and their otherworldly allure, with works by Stan Brakhage, Jean Painlevé, Charlotte Pryce, Jodie Mack, and Momoko Seto.