Yayoi Kusama's 'Infinity Mirror Rooms' at Tate Modern

Tate Modern currently hosts two of Kusama's 'Infinity Mirror Rooms'. The tickets for this exhibition were snapped up very quickly and it is currently sold out until October although more tickets will be released later in the summer for the remainder of its run until June 2022. If you can, grab tickets since it's well worth a visit.

I'm a late-comer to the joys of Kusama, only finding her in 2018 at at exhibition at Victoria Miro in Islington with her installations and artworks and, of course, an infinity room. I was stunned. So much colour and life, giant colourful shapes, pumpkins and flowers, large paintings, indoors and outside and a stunning infinity room in total darkness other than the lit up shapes hanging in infinite space. I loved it. I loved it so much that I sat in a queue to buy tickets to Tate Modern for over an hour when they went on sale - since when do you have to queue for tickets to an art exhibition? 

The first room of the exhibition includes some text and photos of Kusama along with a 'viewer' with coloured windows to look through into infinity that you can't really get close enough to see properly. The next room includes more photographs, a film on rotation and the two infinity rooms. The first is 'Chandeliers of Grief', a dark room with one source of light - the chandelier hung in the centre of the room surrounded by mirrors so it's reflected for miles in all directions. It took a few seconds to adjust to the disorientating effect within the room but I soon got the lay-out and became more adventurous. I made the mistake at looking down underneath the chandelier to see the depths stretching on forever, down down down forever, a drop without a bottom to squash into. Scary! 

The entrance to the next room, 'Filled with the Brilliance of Life', is just a few yards away and siren-called me to visit, so I did. Brilliance indeed. The room is dark but includes approximately 4, 597,348 tiny lights (I gave up counting at that point) suspended from the ceiling and all reflected in the mirrors and the little stream either side of the walkway to create an infinite universe of colour (don't mis-step or you'll get a wet foot). I think I was grinning madly the entire time I was in that room. 

The room itself isn't very big but the lights go on forever in infinite space. The colours keep changing every few seconds, morphing from one display into the next, showing a new vista and new possibilities. 

I loved that room so much that after I exited I immediately walked round the outside back to the entrance to go in a second time, on my own for a while and it was magical.

Entrance to the exhibition is timed and you're given a couple of minutes in the room in groups of two or three - the rooms are quite small so there's not much space and the numbers are kept small for both safety reasons and for enjoyment. If you want some joy in your life book tickets to this exhibition as soon as they become available, you won't be disappointed.

'Forest for Change' at Somerset House

The new installation in the courtyard of Somerset House is 'Forest for Change' by Es Devlin and it really is a small forest. It's odd to see the usually pristine and bare courtyard now filled with various trees. Other than the annual Christmas Tree, I wonder when the last time was that a tree actually stood where Somerset House now is? It's there to celebrate the London Design Biennale and highlights the United Nations' Global Goals and I suspect it'll do a great job of bringing in the curious to get some education about the Goals and what they mean to us. It worked with me.

The forest is all that big really - it's in a courtyard after all - but there are plenty of little trails amongst the trees so you can inspect the trees, shrubs and individual plants as you wander. Woodchip covers the ground to give it more of a feel for the forest and eases walking on the cobblestones. The trees aren't terribly old or tall so, wherever you look, are the buildings of Somerset House poking out above the trees. You can't miss it. Entry to the Biennale is by ticket but visiting the forest is free of charge whenever you're in the area.

Keep walking through the forest and you come to a clearing with a circle of metal 'monoliths', one for each of the UN Global Goals. They're in different colours and partially mirrored and seemed to be very popular with visitors while I was there. 

The first Goal is 'No Poverty' and the side of the 'monolith' includes a quote from Nelson Mandela: "Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the action of human beings.". 

I really liked it and it does an excellent job of attracting visitors - a forest at Somerset House? - and drawing attention to the Global Goals. Take time to look around the 'monoliths' and see which quotes have been picked to highlight each one. Plus, it's free to enjoy so why not?

'Sensing The Unseen' - Gossaert at the National Gallery

Jan Gossaert's 'Adoration of the Kings' is the subject of a Room 1 exhibition at the National Gallery at the moment. The exhibition was being set up on my last visit to the Gallery in December 2020 before we went into lockdown again so I made a point of seeing it now that the Gallery is open again and I'm so pleased I did. Gossaert's 'Adoration' is a favourite painting of mine and it's always astonishing to see how much detail Gossaert managed to cram into a single painting. I've seen it often so it's a joy to explore it in a new way.

Room 1 exhibitions focus on a single painting or a narrow theme to look in detail at something. Room 1 is, as you'd expect, the first room you come to in the gallery off the (former) main entrance and foyer except that the main entrance has now moved to the Sainsbury Wing so, all too often, it's one of the last rooms you're likely to visit, especially in these pandemic days. Exhibitions are generally on for a short time, only for a few months, so we're lucky that the Gallery decided to extend the Gossaert exhibition after lockdown.

The exhibition is a sort of 'sound and vision' immersive experience  focusing exclusively on the one painting. There is timed entry and you walk into Room 1 and take your place in one of the three 'pods', standing in a circle on the floor in front of a large screen showing an enlarged detail of the Virgin with glints in her hair. You hear the sound of the wind, dogs barking and the chatter of the crowds around you as the camera moves slowly around the painting showing enlarged detail after detail. I've seen this painting many times but who knew that the dog in the centre actually has eyelashes? I suspect this is what the title of the exhibition refers to, the amazing details in the painting that we haven't seen but we know there is more to it.

It was the amazing details of the painting on the screen in front of me that astonished me. The sound element enhanced the experience but I was blown away by what I was seeing. This is such a great idea for an exhibition and I hope the Gallery tries it again with other paintings.

The incredibly detailed photography panned around the painting taking in details of the rich clothes and faces, details of the background and the offerings to the new king from the three kings. The film focuses in on where Gossaert signed the painting around the black king Balthasar's hat (under his crown) that I'd never noticed before since it's actually so small. This exhibition really is an advert for looking at the details in paintings. You never know what you might find.

In a way, this exhibition is giving us the view of the painting that curators and restorers have with the incredible detail. I'll never get close enough to the painting to see the highlights in the Virgin's hair or the embroidery details in Balthasar's hat or his rich robes but I now know it's there.

The camera climbs slowly to the top of the painting and the final few close ups are of the angels flying above the scene and then up towards the star that the kings and shepherds have followed, getting closer and closer and we look into the heart of the star. Such detailed work that is impossible top see when you look at the painting when hung on the Gallery's wall, almost breathtaking

You're then invited to step outside the pod to view the painting hung on the wall and listen to the voice of Balthasar as Theresa Lola reads her poem about Balthasar's journey as he hears people call out to him, comment on him, the strangeness he feels being in the presence of so many different people. And then the light dims and the door is open and it's time to leave. It was an astonishing experience and I felt privileged to be able to see it.

Sadly there's no exhibition book or even postcards so I'm pleased I took my own photos of what I saw on the screen. I want to see it again.

The painting was created between 1510-15 in oil on a wooden panel and is about 5'9"x5'3".