Thursday, April 04, 4:00 pm, UNC Charlotte Main Campus, Student Union Theater
Heather Lenz, 2018/80 min.
Japanese (with English subtitles) and English
Sponsors: The Popp-Martin Student Union Theater
Additional sponsors: Japanese Reading Club
Introduction by Phil Kaffen, Assistant Professor of Japanese, UNC Charlotte.
A discussion will follow the screening.
Kusama Infinity, an official selection of the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, traces the story of the Japanese artist, Kusama Yayoi. Now the top-selling female artist in the world, Kusama overcame impossible odds to bring her radical artistic vision to the world stage. For decades, her work pushed boundaries that often alienated her from both her peers and those in power in the art world. Kusama was an underdog with everything stacked against her: the trauma of growing up in Japan during World War II, life in a dysfunctional family that discouraged her creative ambitions, sexism and racism in the art establishment, mental illness in a culture where that was particularly shameful and even continuing to pursue and be devoted to her art full time on the cusp of her 90s. In spite of it all, Kusama has endured and has created a legacy of artwork that spans the disciplines of painting, sculpture, installation art, performance art, poetry and literary fiction. After working as an artist for over six decades, people around the globe are experiencing her installation Infinity Mirrored Rooms in record numbers, as Kusama continues to create new work every day.
