Yayoi Kusama's Pumpkins

Between the towering cranes and construction that envelope the landscape of East London, a super-sizing of quite another sort may be found behind the walls of Victoria Miro’s Wharf Road gallery. In my latest blog entry for Ohh Deer, I visit a new body of work by visionary artist Yayoi Kusama. A series of three oversized pumpkins lie on the gallery’s enviable water garden – a fitting synergy with the Japanese artist’s longstanding intrigue of the natural world.

Pumpkins, 2014 by Yayoi Kusama - Victoria Miro, Wharf Road gallery London

Pumpkins mark the first time Kusama has worked with bronze on this scale, ranging from knee to head height. The plant has played a prolific role in the eccentric artist’s career – first making an appearance as early as 1948. After over five decades, Kusama affirms there is much more fantasy to be explored with this bulbous form, reinterpreted in her trademark Pop aesthetic that has been revered in major international exhibitions to commercial collaborations with luxury fashion house Louis Vuitton, under the direction of Marc Jacobs, as well as t-shirt graphics for Japanese retailer Uniqlo.

My full review Yayoi Kusama’s Pumpkins - on show until 19th December 2014 in the Victoria Miro garden - is now available to read on the Ohh Deer blog.

Look out for other public artworks by the artist during Frieze London 2014 at Frieze Sculpture Park in the English Garden in Regent’s Park between 15th - 19th October 2014. 

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Image courtesy of Victoria Miro

Introducing: Melting Butter

Is it just me or do time and travel never seem to get along? There’s never enough time while you’re away exploring new sights and sounds and when you get back it feels like a lifetime waiting until the next adventure can begin. Despite much technological advancement – of which time travel is not one – if you’ve ever precariously perched out of your hotel window to catch free Wi-Fi out of thin air and punched the words ‘what to do in’ while you’re away from home, then you’re doing it all wrong. Lose the generic travel guides and reviews and by all means get lost; just get lost in the right places. After accumulating a fair amount of mileage on my travels, wandering the streets with only my eyes, ears and sensibility, I’ve amassed an international cultural log of art and design must-sees that I’ve not known what to do with - until now...

I’m very excited to announce I have joined the correspondent team at lifestyle hub Melting Butter. Founded by fellow globetrotter Jenny Nguyen-Barron, Melting Butter is a traveler’s ultimate digital companion, offering a curated online guide from dawn to dusk for explorers in search of the most inspiring and aspiring hotspots in New York and around the world.

As the site’s new arts and culture correspondent I’ll be covering contemporary art and design staples from across the pond in London and the rest of the UK as well as across Europe. Catch up on my latest favourite hotspots including Tate Britain, Tate Modern and the Barbican Centre online now.

Follow Melting Butter as I work my way through my travel log of galleries and institutions throughout Europe to make time while you travel last that little bit longer.

Barbican Centre image: Padsyms