souls under the moon

Recentley had the absolute pleasure of coming across Yayoi Kusama's otherworldly Souls Under the Moon (2002) in the Queensland GOMA, Brisbane.
The photograph of the artwork, shown below, struggles to show the true magnificence of it. You are transported into this magical world through where all the walls are mirrored and dark and these neon balls hang from the sky, glowing for the uv lamps, repeated in the mirrors - resulting in this unbelievable piece of work which is totally trippy. The mirror lined walls and neon balls create a never ending vision of time-space, it is silent inside and utterly breathtaking!
Highly reccomended if you are ever in Brisbane...
Aside from that, though, the artist herself is interesting...she lives and works in Tokyo and suffers from depersonalization syndrome -  a syndrome whereby the patient feels that their body is dissolving, changing, or simply absent. It is often called ‘Alice in Wonderland Disease’,due to the inability to perceive the reality of one’s self, life or environment. Symptoms have been described as creating a feeling of being “like an alien visiting Earth for the first time.” Bizarre!  - it is easy to see how the syndrome influences her work! Sometimes the individual perceives objects at delusional sizes and shapes. In extreme cases, patients experience life in a constant OBE (out-of-body) state of mind — patients describe the sensations as, “floating on the ceiling looking down at myself,” or “feeling as one were a machine or robot,” or, “in a constant dream state with body on autopilot.” Incredibly interesting I think... 
Constructing Soul Under the Moon Kusama lined a room with mirrored glass, hanging neon coloured balls (that look simply like ping pong balls) from the celling. We were asked not to touch or blow at the balls, and while it was tempting to reach out and touch them, their stillness was mesmerizing.

Souls Under the Moon (2002) Yayoi Kusama
Queensland GOMA, Brisbane
February 2011

 See also: 'I Have Alice in Wonderland Syndrome' Article from The Guardian.