Kusama: Infinity

Kusama: Infinity

If you’re one of the happy hordes going to see Yayoi Kusama’s infinity mirrors at the Art Gallery of Ontario — a new block of tickets recently went on sale, with the gallery staying open to midnight to accommodate visitors — then Heather Lenz’s documentary on the 89-year-old Japanese artist will be both a joy and a disappointment.

The joy will come of learning more about Kusama’s life, from her birth in 1929 rural Japan, to her letter to American artist Georgia O’Keeffe in 1955 — “Would you kindly show me the way to approach this life?” she asked, and of course O’Keeffe answered — to her moving to New York, where as a single Japanese woman she faced a barrage of prejudice, including stalkerish behaviour from fellow artist Joseph Cornell.

But the slim, 76-minute biography barely touches on any one subject. So we rush through the infinity mirrors, learning Kusama fashioned them about the same time men were venturing into infinity themselves as part of the burgeoning space age. Similarly, her self-institutionalization in a mental hospital in Japan where she still lives leaves questions. What is the arrangement with the staff precisely? Is she a patient or just a lodger?

It’s still a fascinating film but it comes up short. Then again, perhaps that’s the risk you take when your subject’s subject is the infinite. Kusama: Infinity opens May 11 at the Lightbox in Toronto, the Globe in Calgary and the Art Gallery of Hamilton; May 18 in Vancouver; May 19 in Saskatoon; May 24 at the Mount Pleasant in Toronto; June 1 at the Hot Docs cinema in Toronto; and June 13 in Winnipeg. ★★★