Waves

The small-format painting Waves from 1995 represents a further development of the Infinity Net Paintings, which Kusama has been creating since 1958. For these works, she covers the canvas with a multitude of dots that condense into a net-like structure. These dots, known as polka dots, are the Japanese artist’s trademark. The motif is related to the hallucinations from which Kusama has suffered since childhood. In these visions, people, animals and her surroundings are covered in dots. In these fantastic moments, the boundaries seem to dissolve into a kind of infinity. Kusama has confronted and processed these frightening experiences in her works of art. At the same time, these experiences also open up new freedoms for her to defy social norms and moral concepts. 
Kusama also associated the feeling of infinity and freedom with the view of the ocean waves from the airplane window when she first flew from Japan to the USA in 1957. Although she barely spoke English, she tore up her return ticket six months later and lived in New York from 1958 to 1973. Waves is the title of the painting she made in response to this experience many years later in acrylic on canvas. It is a collection of cell-like shapes in different shades of red, which visually appear as an undulating surface.