Abnormal sexual desire, art and Louis Vuitton…

 Her polka dots are not mere dots:
For her troubled mind dots are female genitals, tentacle-like structures phallus.

About six years ago some concept stores of Louis Vuitton got decorated with sublime and fascinating art works by one of the most renowned Japanese artists Yayoi Kusama. They were so beautiful and enticing that I’d be surprised if high fashion nerds forgot them.

A year forward and I am busy with my studies on psychoanalysis, especially Freud’s theory on repression of sexuality in Buenos Aires. The place where I lived was very close to the largest modern gallery in the city called Malba. One day while passing by I see the trees in front of Malba dressed in red with white polka dots – that remarkable signature design I remember from a year ago. Malba was hosting an exhibition of Yayoi Kusama. The trees looked intriguing and beautiful. I resolved to go and see what it is about.

In Museum: polka dots, but also phallus

Next day, I enter Malba and the first impression I have was – God, this is what classical Freudian wish fulfillment of excessive sexual desire and irrepressible conflicting impulses looks like. Interestingly, her polka dots became famous and made it all the way to the world of high fashion and beyond just the way they were. However, another important detail accompanying those dots was so beautifully disguised into unsuspecting snake-like shapes, or tentacles as critics called them, in Louis Vuitton installations and went almost unnoticed – her obsession with phallus. Maybe, for a reason, otherwise that would have been too perverse, who knows. Maybe not. 

Tentacle-like art and polka dots: penetrator and recipient

Unlike her fashion installations, the view of tentacle-like elements covering every object was more prominent in the exhibition venue. These objects covered the things that we normally use to lay over, sit upon or wear such as sofas, couches, chairs, shirts even shoes. They basically covered everything one can imagine, even pasta, anything that we can touch. The photos with herself covered in dots laying over these thorny sofas decorated the walls.

By now, it is pretty much clear that polka dots all over her, analogous to the genital organs, represent vagina.  On the other hand, everything else that we can touch has grown innumerable phallus. It was a classical portrait of Freudian wish fulfillment of incompatible sexual desire. The vividness with which she depicted her troubled state of mind was chilling. These art works were explosive manifestation of deeply repressed conflicts. The curiosity took me to study her life. In some places she talks openly about her revulsion to sex. Maybe, it rooted in her troubled childhood experiences of the relationship between her parents too.

So her art, to me, was basically free ride of deeply conflicting urges. On one side, her revulsion of sex, on the other side, her strong desire for it. On top of all, she had to numb this internal storm against the backdrop of strict social frame. It feels like, it has been too much to stomach and at some point, she has let it go.

Obsession – Morbid dark impulses in psyche

It seems she had full divine experience in dots and phallus, she felt the creative power of universe in them. Here comes to mind Indian Gods Shiva and Shakti. However, her experience was reverse, regressive and destructive. Instead of leading them towards a fruitful and meaningful experience, she became overwhelmed by them. She lived it not in the form of celestial experience, but as morbid obsessive forces chasing her to insanity. She kind of talked about it openly through art and this is what she labels as “obsession” – let it be her phallus chair, mirror rooms or dotted pumpkins – automated instinctual impulses that tend to magnify, augment and overwhelm. 

Sexuality and Spirituality – why are the same thing in the depth of our mind? – Read this post to see why Kusama’s art made me think of God Shiva and Goddess Shakti