Kusama installation

'Gleaming Lights of the Souls' by the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama is one of the most beloved pieces in the museum collection. The installation, dating from 2008, consists of a single space, four by four meters. The walls and ceilings are covered with mirrors; the floor is a reflecting pool; and you stand in the middle of the water on a platform.

Hanging from the ceiling above you are a hundred lamps that resemble glowing ping pong balls. These lamps change color in a way that transports us into a special rhythm and pulse, almost as though we become one with the universe of the installation. Gleaming Lights of the Souls is a truly lyrical work of art in every sense.

Her second leitmotif at the time was sculptural and consisted of accumulations. It looks like surrealism, but it’s just very Kusama: phallic forms made of stuffed fabric, a gigantic universe of small penis pillows – silver or otherwise coloured – that seemingly take over any surface or object – furniture, shoes, entire rooms.

Kusama’s early work has a distinct handmade character that harks back to Japanese calligraphy, but in New York she quickly becomes familiar with the larger artistic field – the public space, the art scene, the media, the publicity, the photographs, the cliché. There’s quite a bit of Warhol about her activities in the 1960s, making films and performances that are both institution-critical and sexually orientated, opening a fashion boutique and making a big splash, including in the press.