Yayoi Kusama (Japanese, b. 1929), 'LOVE IS CALLING,' 2013. Wood, metal, glass mirrors, tile, acrylic panel, rubber, blowers, lighting element, speakers and sound. 174 1/2 x 340 5/8 x 239 3/8 inches. Vinik Family Foundation Collection. Courtesy David Zwirner, New York; Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo/Singapore/Shanghai; Victoria Miro, London/Venice. Credit: Yayoi Kusama

Yayoi Kusama (Japanese, b. 1929), ‘LOVE IS CALLING,’ 2013. Wood, metal, glass mirrors, tile, acrylic panel, rubber, blowers, lighting element, speakers and sound. 174 1/2 x 340 5/8 x 239 3/8 inches. Vinik Family Foundation Collection. Courtesy David Zwirner, New York; Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo/Singapore/Shanghai; Victoria Miro, London/Venice. Credit: Yayoi Kusama
Tampa Museum of Art's 'Season of Love' continues with Yayoi Kusama's LOVE IS CALLING, one of her paradigmatic Infinity Rooms. Kusama's Infinity Rooms offer immersive experiences where visitors walk through a mirrored room. In this installation — on loan from the Vinik Family Foundation's collection — that's a walk through color-changing, soft tentacles stretching up from the ground and down from the ceiling. Polka dots adorn the tentacles, as is the artist's style, and as you walk through the room you hear Kusama reciting — in Japanese — a love poem she wrote, Residing in a Castle of Shed Tears. The poem is emblematic of themes that appear in her art: It includes her thoughts on love, life and death.

Yayoi Kusama: LOVE IS CALLING | Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa | Sept. 26-Feb. 14

This article appears in Aug 9-16, 2018.

Cathy's portfolio includes pieces for Visit Florida, USA Today and regional and local press. In 2016, UPF published Backroads of Paradise, her travel narrative about retracing the WPA-era Florida driving...