MIF23: You, Me and the Balloons at Factory International

* New evening slots just opened for Fridays and Saturdays.

Yayoi Kusama’s You, Me and the Balloons celebrates three decades of Kusama’s spectacular inflatable artworks, which are brought together for the first time in this major exhibition.

Created especially for Manchester’s newest cultural space, Aviva Studios, Yayoi Kusama – You, Me and the Balloons is the renowned Japanese contemporary artist’s largest ever immersive collection of work.

Featuring works that are over 10 metres tall and taking full advantage of the new venue’s vast warehouse space, the exhibition invites visitors to take an exhilarating journey through Kusama’s psychedelic creations including giant dolls, spectacular tendrilled landscapes and a vast constellation of polka-dot spheres. 

The dot obsession began when Kusama was a child, during what she calls a moment of “self-obliteration” when she felt that a field of flowers began talking to her. She has continued creating works with colourful and repetitive motifs ever since, throughout the 80 years of her career, translating them into stickers, lights, inflatables and mirrors. Her creativity and drive to create art spills out into other disciplines from painting, performance, video art to fashion, poetry and fiction.

Kusama’s work is multi-layered in themes and meaning. The often large scale of her installations and choice of materials celebrates playfulness and experimentation. However, the artist’s traumatic childhood and difficulties throughout her career play a large part in the seemingly innocent aesthetic. The polka-dot pattern comes from her regular hallucinations and is an attempt to silence intrusive thoughts and immerse the viewer in her world of repetition and obsession. 

A global phenomenon today, Kusama is adored for her surreal world of dots and pumpkins amongst other artistic motifs. There is a comforting, awe-inspiring element to such dedication to repetition, that through its very nature, makes for immersive environments. Her hallucinatory paintings, sculptures, and installations take us beyond ourselves and make us feel part of something greater and now you can experience this sensation yourself in You, Me and the Balloons.

In a recent exhibition at Tate Modern, Kusama presented the Obliteration Room – a white canvas space with furniture that visitors were invited to cover in colourful stickers. Infinity Mirror Rooms are some of her most famous pieces, where mirrored walls create the illusion of infinite repetition of the motif present inside. These works, just like the inflatables, are not only immersive when experienced in real life, but are almost equally compelling when translated to photographs and social media, adding a performative element activated by the viewer.

While You, Me and the Balloons is set to be a blockbuster event, it does not need to be an overwhelming experience for visitors who would prefer a quieter visit  – tickets for relaxed sessions are available so you can enjoy the show with fewer visitors around, as well as greater sensory consideration regarding noise levels and volume of people in the space.

Despite her prolific output, coming face to face with Yayoi Kusama’s work is a rare treat, and rarer still in the North. Make the most of this incredible opportunity to momentarily forget everything and immerse yourself in the artist’s world and grab a ticket today.