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'Gleaming Lights of the Souls,' 2008.
This permanent installation by the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama is at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark. Once you step inside the modest entrance door, you are immediately engulfed by dazzling lights (100 of them).
The many spherical lights (which are suspended from the ceiling) constantly change colour; they are meant to evoke a sense of ‘self-obliteration,’ namely the feeling that Kusama would experience while having one of her many vivid hallucinations that started from a young age. This hallucinatory feel is furthered by the mirrors that line the walls and the ceiling, which render the tiny four-square metre room into infinite space. The floor itself is a reflective pool (you stand on a narrow platform), so you truly feel engulfed by the absorbing and hypnotic surroundings.
I love this immersive experience. I’ve visited it at least three times and I promise you, it never gets old. Enter and escape from reality!
FYI: This installation is one of 20 immersive 'Infinity Mirror Rooms' created by Yayoi Kusama. She has been creating such installations since the 1960s.
