Naomi and Eve: Unlikely Birds of a Feather: Yayoi Kusama and Mac Miller By Anja Wade

Tumblr is good for many reasons. One such reason is that it brings new images and sounds to your attention. A few months ago, I was scrolling through my Tumblr feed when I saw a post about Yayoi Kusama’s “Fireflies on the Water” exhibit at the Whitney Museum. Before I had even read the post, I was reminded of another exhibit of sorts – Mac Miller’s music video for “I Am Who Am (Killin’ Time).” At the surface, Kusama and Miller don’t have a lot in common. Kusama is a Japanese-born artist who spent a good deal of time making headlines in the avant-garde art scene of 1960’s New York City. She works in a variety of media – installation, painting, sculpture, film, drawing, and performance. Miller is a twenty-something rapper and producer who hails from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Kusama is lauded in the international art community. Miller, on the other hand, has received recent criticism for attempting to break free from his “party anthem” music with an introspective album entitled “Watching Movies with the Sound Off.” Many heavyweights in the hip-hop community are nonetheless fans of this album, which Miller concedes is a mark of artistic evolution.

Despite their differences, “Fireflies on the Water” (2002) and “I Am Who Am” (2013) provide a similar atmospheric world for viewers and listeners. In “Fireflies on the Water,” Kusama explores the concept of infinity by inviting visitors to immerse themselves in an installation created with mirrors, lights, and water. In “I Am Who Am,” Miller sits in a room of lights and mirrors while reciting verses that address depression, spirituality, and artistic transcendence. Both artists meditate on the duality of limitation and freedom while inviting viewers to do the same. From time to time, I revisit each work to explore their themes. Kusama asks me to step into a box and contemplate life from a birds-eye view. Miller asks me to watch as he himself steps into a box and contemplates life from a birds-eye view. When one steps into this realm, one realizes that human beings tend to understand infinity through the confines of a finite space. Perhaps our bodies are the finite spaces, in addition to art exhibits. We can see and hear that there is something beyond, but we cannot grasp it, save for a fleeting moment. Indeed, Kusama and Miller use sight and sound to evoke an endless space that is paradoxically its own end. For that, they are unlikely birds of a feather.
-AW

Watch a video of Kusama’s "Fireflies on the Water" installation here: