If you’re dotty about Yayoi Kusama, it’s worth heading to New York where you can see the artist painting her famous spots in the window of the Louis Vuitton store on Fifth Avenue. But don’t get too excited as this strikingly lifelike Kusama is not Kusama… but a robot apparently which is turning heads and stopping traffic with its hyper-realistic movements and grimaces (the lips even turn upwards).
The new partnership between the Japanese artist and luxury goods group—resulting in more than 450 pieces including bags, fragrances and trainers—is the second time these mega-brands have collaborated. “Celebrating art, audacity and craftsmanship, Kusama’s painted dots, metal dots, infinity dots and psychedelic flower enliven the universe of Louis Vuitton,” says an online blurb. Meanwhile, a pop-up Vuitton space in New York’s Meatpacking district— covered in floor-to-floor infinity dots echoing the artist’s headline-hitting Infinity Room mirrored installation works—is also dedicated to the new Kusama collection.
The artist, who is now in her 90s and voluntarily living in a psychiatric hospital, has a major retrospective under way in Hong Kong. In a recent interview with The Art Newspaper, she said: “I paint every day. I am going to continue creating a world in awe of life, embracing all the messages of love, peace and universe.”
