Too Gourd to be True
Tickets and Information
Timed tickets are required for “Yayoi Kusama: All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins” due to the artist’s popularity and the fully immersive nature of the installation. The general public and CAM Members must have a timed ticket to enter the exhibition.
When you are inside:
You will have 1.5 minutes to experience the work inside the room. The doors will be closed.
A gallery attendant will always be present in the room, and they will handle access to the door.
Please anticipate changes in light, sound, and reflective elements. Some visitors may find the changes in sensory input disorienting.
Expect to spend up to 30 minutes, total, in the exhibition (including queuing and viewing the Kusama prints and paintings).
The Cincinnati Art Museum has a new Yayoi Kusama exhibition, blending her famous infinity rooms and signature dotted pumpkins into one incredible experience.
“All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins” is a completely immersive experience that only allows two people in at a time. Upon entry into the small installation, guests are greeted with a world of repetition and whimsy as Kusama's cheerful glowing pumpkins are replicated in all directions by the surrounding infinity room. The result is something both endless and intimate as visitors view themselves duplicated alongside the endless rows of dotted gourds.
“All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins” draws on Kusama’s seminal pumpkin room, “Mirror Room (Pumpkin)” (1991), which was shown in the Japanese Pavilion at the 1993 Biennale Arte in Venice.
I was lucky to view this exhibition right when it opened and was completely mesmerized by the experience. As someone who suffers from claustrophobia, I was a bit worried going in, but the infinity mirrors expanded the space and I forgot that I was essentially in a big box. I could've stayed in that beautiful room for hours, but each group of two is only allotted one minute and thirty seconds inside the experience. Though a minute and a half sounds incredibly brief, time truly seems to stand still once that door clicked shut behind us. Surrounded by that endless, glowing sea of yellow and black, we were offered a fleeting but completely unforgettable escape from reality.
If you have the chance to visit the Cincinnati Art Museum while this installation is on display, I cannot recommend it enough. Just be sure to put your phone down for at least part of your time and savor every single second. It’s a surreal, dotted dream you won't want to wake up from.
A few notes about the experience:
Guests are asked to attach their phones to a lanyard provided by the museum
All other belongings are to be left in the provided cubbies
There is a parking spot outside the installation for strollers and mobility devices
The exhibition continues through Oct. 18 and is a ticketed experience.
“Yayoi Kusama: All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins” is on loan from the Dallas Museum of Art.
– Shae Combs
“Yayoi Kusama: All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins” is presented by P&G, Bank of America and the Martha H. Ragland Exhibition Fund. Additional support provided by Berkley One, E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, Everything But The House, the John A. Schroth Family Charitable Trust and Wohlgemuth Herschede Foundation. The installation is on loan from the Dallas Museum of Art.