![]() ![]() ![]() The AGO is encouraging selfies and social posts, with obvious marketing benefits, but the artist doesn’t mind either. Thinking about the photo without that wider context is a dumb way to see the world, because it fails to explain what is really happening.”Īfter opening at the Art Gallery of Ontario last week, Infinity Mirrors, a two-floor survey of Kusama’s work focused around six of the artist’s mirrored room installations, inspired the usual hand-wringing around millennial narcissism and about social media spoiling the gallery experience. As British cultural historian John Higgs put it, if you see a selfie as “someone smiling at their friends, an attempt to strengthen social bonds, then you’re thinking like the millennial generation. Others look at this divide as generational. At the same time, ideas of collective healing and intersectionality are being put forward by politicians and activists fighting for people on the margins. Individualist attitudes have risen since the 1960s in tandem with economic prosperity. It’s appropriate that Yayoi Kusama’s touring museum show is all about mirrors because reactions to the prolific, 88-year-old Japanese artist’s work reflect a fundamental divide in our culture, which is at a crossroads between individualistic impulses and an awakening to collective responsibility. What do you see when you look at a selfie? Vanity and narcissism? Or a desire to share and be a part of something larger? YAYOI KUSAMA: INFINITY MIRRORS at the Art Gallery of Ontario (317 Dundas West). ![]()
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