Yayoi Kusama’s Self-Obliteration Meets the Age of Selfies

Yayoi Kusama is an artist famous for dots, nets, mirrors and pumpkins.

She said making repeating patterns helped her cope with frightening visions.

One artwork covered people and everyday objects with the same pattern, making everything seem connected.

This idea was called self-obliteration, or making the individual self disappear into a larger whole.

Kusama also made many self-portraits, but her art was not mainly about showing off herself.

Instead, she often described human life as one small dot among many others.

The article says people taking selfies in her mirror installations creates an amusing contrast with that idea.

It also recalls how one of her pumpkins floated away at sea before being found.