Apr 3, 2025
INFINITY MIRRORED ROOM – LET’S SURVIVE FOREVER returns home
Learn more about Yayoi Kusama and her work of art on view now at the AGO
Yayoi Kusama. INFINITY MIRRORED ROOM - LET'S SURVIVE FOREVER, 2017. wood, metal, glass mirrors, LED lighting system, monofilament, stainless steel balls and carpet, Installed: 312.4 × 624.8 × 622.9 cm (123 × 246 × 245 1/4 in.). Art Gallery of Ontario. Purchased with funds from the David Yuile & Mary Elizabeth Hodgson Fund, Michelle Koerner & Kevin Doyle, Robert Dorrance & Gail Drummond, The Schulich Foundation, Soichiro & Junko Yamamoto, Diane Bald & Michael Budman, Don & Denyse Green, DH Gales Foundation, Maxine Granovsky Gluskin & Ira Gluskin, Barry Appleton & Magaly Bianchini, Emmanuelle Gattuso, Sheryle & David Saunders, Robin & David Young, Laura E. Baldini, Diana Billes, Edison Chai, Julian Chan & Yi Hyun Park, The Francis and Denise Connolly Family, Creeds, Eileen Farrow, Ivan Fecan & Sandra Faire, Hallisey Family, Victoria Jackman, Val Koziol, David Kozman & Kristin Blakely-Kozman, The Charles & Jane Kucey Foundation Fund, Jämes Lee & the Julie Institute, Chelsea Longaphy & Bernie Li, Martha LA McCain, Abby, Perry & Jordan Minuk, Carolyn D. Mullin, Samuel & Alice Peralta, In Memory of Pierrette & Abel Rancourt, Heather & Aaron Regent, Shevlen Family, Mary Sinclair, Jay Smith & Laura Rapp, J. Kenneth & Margaret Syer-Torrance, and the generosity of thousands of art lovers, 2018. © Yayoi Kusama, Courtesy David Zwirner, New York; Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo/Singapore/Shanghai; Victoria Miro, London/Venice. Photo: AGO. 2018/28
It’s finally back! After a successful tour of American museums, Yayoi Kusama’s INFINITY MIRRORED ROOM – LET’S SURVIVE FOREVER is set to reopen at the AGO this April.
Before you make your way to the Gallery, take a moment to learn more about Kusuma, her decades-long art practice and the deeper meaning behind this infinitely intriguing work of art.
Featuring a whimsical assortment of stainless-steel orbs hanging from the ceiling and dotting the floor, LET’S SURVIVE FOREVER is a fully mirrored room that endlessly reflects the viewer’s own image. Sitting at the centre of the chamber lies a large, mirrored pillar with several small portholes to transport viewers further into their own obliteration. Viewing this pillar in relation to the perimeter of the space is part of the other-worldly, infinite experience for which Kusama’s installations are famous. This room is a continuation of the visual language she’s been developing since the 1960s: kaleidoscopic, mirrored environments, silver orbs and complete immersion.
Yayoi Kusama. INFINITY MIRRORED ROOM - LET'S SURVIVE FOREVER (detail), 2017. wood, metal, glass mirrors, LED lighting system, monofilament, stainless steel balls and carpet, Installed: 312.4 × 624.8 × 622.9 cm (123 × 246 × 245 1/4 in.). Art Gallery of Ontario. Purchased with funds from the David Yuile & Mary Elizabeth Hodgson Fund, Michelle Koerner & Kevin Doyle, Robert Dorrance & Gail Drummond, The Schulich Foundation, Soichiro & Junko Yamamoto, Diane Bald & Michael Budman, Don & Denyse Green, DH Gales Foundation, Maxine Granovsky Gluskin & Ira Gluskin, Barry Appleton & Magaly Bianchini, Emmanuelle Gattuso, Sheryle & David Saunders, Robin & David Young, Laura E. Baldini, Diana Billes, Edison Chai, Julian Chan & Yi Hyun Park, The Francis and Denise Connolly Family, Creeds, Eileen Farrow, Ivan Fecan & Sandra Faire, Hallisey Family, Victoria Jackman, Val Koziol, David Kozman & Kristin Blakely-Kozman, The Charles & Jane Kucey Foundation Fund, Jämes Lee & the Julie Institute, Chelsea Longaphy & Bernie Li, Martha LA McCain, Abby, Perry & Jordan Minuk, Carolyn D. Mullin, Samuel & Alice Peralta, In Memory of Pierrette & Abel Rancourt, Heather & Aaron Regent, Shevlen Family, Mary Sinclair, Jay Smith & Laura Rapp, J. Kenneth & Margaret Syer-Torrance, and the generosity of thousands of art lovers, 2018. © Yayoi Kusama, Courtesy David Zwirner, New York; Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo/Singapore/Shanghai; Victoria Miro, London/Venice. Photo: AGO. 2018/28
As an artist, Kusama has had an interesting and diverse career over the past seven decades. Born in Matsumoto, Nagano, Japan in 1929, Kusama studied traditional Japanese painting in her teenage years and around the age of 30, she relocated to New York City. Active at the same time as Pop art icons Andy Warhol and Claes Oldenburg, she is considered a staple in the avant-garde art movement of 1960s New York. Developing work through new mediums like sculpture and performance art, Kusama’s fame grew throughout the 1960s as she became bolder and more political in her approach. She held large-scale anti-war happenings (mostly in 1968) and built polka dot-covered phallic objects. In 1966, her first infinity room (Infinity Mirror Room: Phalli’s Field) was created.
Since then, her work with mirrors and reflection has focused primarily on the idea of self-obliteration. LET’S SURVIVE FOREVER uses the infinite reflection of the subject (the viewer) and the motif of polka dots to visually allow the self to disappear into the eternal abyss. The clever irony of this concept in our modern, social media era of selfies might be Kusama’s most important contribution yet.
Yayoi Kusama. INFINITY MIRRORED ROOM - LET'S SURVIVE FOREVER, 2017. wood, metal, glass mirrors, LED lighting system, monofilament, stainless steel balls and carpet, Installed: 312.4 × 624.8 × 622.9 cm (123 × 246 × 245 1/4 in.). Art Gallery of Ontario. Purchased with funds from the David Yuile & Mary Elizabeth Hodgson Fund, Michelle Koerner & Kevin Doyle, Robert Dorrance & Gail Drummond, The Schulich Foundation, Soichiro & Junko Yamamoto, Diane Bald & Michael Budman, Don & Denyse Green, DH Gales Foundation, Maxine Granovsky Gluskin & Ira Gluskin, Barry Appleton & Magaly Bianchini, Emmanuelle Gattuso, Sheryle & David Saunders, Robin & David Young, Laura E. Baldini, Diana Billes, Edison Chai, Julian Chan & Yi Hyun Park, The Francis and Denise Connolly Family, Creeds, Eileen Farrow, Ivan Fecan & Sandra Faire, Hallisey Family, Victoria Jackman, Val Koziol, David Kozman & Kristin Blakely-Kozman, The Charles & Jane Kucey Foundation Fund, Jämes Lee & the Julie Institute, Chelsea Longaphy & Bernie Li, Martha LA McCain, Abby, Perry & Jordan Minuk, Carolyn D. Mullin, Samuel & Alice Peralta, In Memory of Pierrette & Abel Rancourt, Heather & Aaron Regent, Shevlen Family, Mary Sinclair, Jay Smith & Laura Rapp, J. Kenneth & Margaret Syer-Torrance, and the generosity of thousands of art lovers, 2018. © Yayoi Kusama, Courtesy David Zwirner, New York; Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo/Singapore/Shanghai; Victoria Miro, London/Venice. Photo: AGO. 2018/28
INFINITY MIRRORED ROOM – LET’S SURVIVE FOREVER goes on view in the Sam & Ayala Zacks Pavilion at the AGO on Level 2 this April. Also on view is Earth is a Polka Dot (2011), an eight-minute interview with Kusama, produced by the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art.
Exclusive Members’ Access is from Saturday, April 5, to Sunday, April 6, 2025. Click here for details. Beginning Tuesday, April 8, 2025, entry to LET'S SURVIVE FOREVER is included with General Admission on a first-come, first-served basis. Get the full details here.
