KUSAMA – INFINITY

Directed by Heather Lenz

Asian American Panorama / USA / 2018 / documentary / 78 mins / English, Japanese with English subtitles / DCP / West Coast Premiere

‹ ›

Closing Night: KUSAMA – INFINITY

UltraStar Mission Valley
Thursday, Apr 26, 2018 7:00PM

Description

Official Selection, 2018 Sundance Film Festival

Watching Yayoi Kusama draw lines is a revelation. Here is an artist who’s never been bounded by a canvas. Her lines could go on forever. And yet here they are, the blueprint for the galaxies in her mind, translating hallucinations into three-dimensional experiences and infinity rooms. That she was once born, that she was a child in Japan and later a budding artist sending fan mail across the sea to Georgia O’Keefe, seems all too mundane for an visionary whose work transcends the boundaries of life and stardust. Nevertheless, here is her story, told on film. KUSAMA – INFINITY.

As a young artist, Yayoi struggled with convention and family, before making her way to New York, where she shopped her work gallery by gallery, in search of a supporter who could see her as more than just a woman or Japanese. While her paintings strove for nothing less than to rewrite art history in the United States, she was marginalized, her ideas stolen by the famous men of modern art.

Her journey from obscure outsider, to art scene trouble-maker, to one of the most iconic artists of her generation, is a true inspiration. Her life is polka-dotted with conflict and mental illness, in addition to the unparalleled successes. But as with her wondrous art, the constellation of life events is a sublime sight, best experienced on the biggest screen possible. –Brian Hu

Co-presented by: National Association of Asian American Professionals San Diego, Silk Road Productions, AAPI Democratic Club