the yayoi kusama (excerpted from Art Boozel)
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With her plump neon pumpkins and fairy-lit, cosmic dream worlds, the Japanese Pop artist Yayoi Kusama is a perfect fit for the social-media era—the millions of selfies taken in her ethereal mirrorscape installations have been an Instagram staple for years. But Kusama is more than just a meme: Now in her nineties, she’s one of the most important living artists.
Kusama began making art as a way to deal with the trauma of living with an emotionally abusive mother and a philandering father. At age ten, her anxiety disorder started to spiral, causing her to experience strange and vivid hallucinations that manifested as flashes of light, auras, and fields of dots. In one instance, a pumpkin spoke to her. But she tackled her issues by using them as inspiration: Spots and patterns became a repeating motif in her work, as did pumpkins. “I would confront the spirit of the pumpkin, forgetting everything else and concentrating my mind entirely on the form before me,” she said. Her polka-dot paintings earned her acclaim in the 1950s, and she became a leader in New York’s avant-garde art movement, creating wild exhibitions and performances filled with surreal, speckled objects.
Despite Kusama’s ever-growing fame, her mental illness remained a constant. In the late 1970s, she voluntarily checked herself into a psychiatric hospital in Tokyo, where she still resides, producing her globally renowned contemporary art at a studio across the street. Her museum shows, which she attends dressed in outré spotted ensembles and brightly colored wigs, attract huge crowds.
Kusama’s drink riffs on her beloved pumpkins, with their sweetness balancing out the tartness of lime and grapefruit.
1.5 oz [45 ml] gin
1 oz [30 ml] pumpkin purée
1 oz [30 ml] fresh lime juice
1/2 oz [15 ml] ginger liqueur
1/2 oz [15 ml] agave syrup
1 dash Fee Brothers grapefruit bitters
1 Cape gooseberry, for garnish
Combine the gin, pumpkin purée, lime juice, ginger liqueur, syrup, and bitters in a shaker filled with ice and shake until chilled. Strain into a rocks glass filled with ice. Garnish with a Cape gooseberry.