Friday, July 27, 2012

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Pitt St Mall

Today was a perfect Sydney winter's day. Sunshine, a bright blue sky and crisp, cold air. This morning I had some errands to do in the city, which really was looking its sparkling best. My pleasure in the day was increased by the display in the shop windows of a well-known, international, very, very expensive luggage store:

Yayoi flower
Yayoi plus reflections

Yayoi tentaclesYayoi tentacles plus reflections

They're colourful, exuberant works by prolific Japanese octogenarian artist Yayoi Kusama. Earlier this year I visited an exhibition of her work in the wonderful Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane where my grand-daughter and I had great fun sticking stickers in the Obliteration Room installation conceived by Kusama. Kusama, who was integral to many of the experimental art movements of the 1960s, and has been continuously devising and executing her works since then, is very trendy just now. A current exhibition of her work at the Whitney Museum in New York has had people queuing around the block to view it. She has an obsession with dots and with gigantic life-like but not realistic forms that makes her work very playful and approachable.

It was such a delight to see these works just there on George Street for passers-by to enjoy. An added delight is the way the shop windows reflect the street and its buildings and integrate them with Kusama's works. Sydney can share this trend with New York.