Manhattan Suicide Addict, 2005
Book, 23.8 x 17 cm, 255 p, language: French, publisher: Dijon: Les presses du réel, ISBN: 2-84066-115-2.
©M HKA
Collection: Collection M HKA, Antwerp (Inv. no. B 2024/856).
Literary synopsis
'The art that grows out of my canvases forms an environment, aspires to build a new stage on our time, involving the audience who suffer from the same obsessions as mine.' Thus wrote Yayoi Kusama in her brilliant faux autobiography, Manhattan Suicide Addict, an account of the years she spent in New York between the late '50s and the late '60s. Having left behind a strict family life in post-war Japan, Kusama entered a period of heightened creativity. She was free to make what she wanted, but plagued by fears of intimacy and inadequacy. Her art became a form of therapy, and she went on to create a unique body of work that not only parallels and transcends the Pop art, Minimal art and Happenings of the '60s, but has been influential for artists working today. The enduring fascination with Kusama suggests that her obsessions may have been ours as well.
Authorship: Artist Author.
Creative Strategy: No Link to Artworks.
Genre: Autobiography.
Publishing: Publishing House.
Theme: American Culture, Art World, Death, Japanese Culture, Subjective Experience.
Artist
> Yayoi Kusama.
Exhibitions & Ensembles
> Exhibition: WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE ARTWORK BECOMES A NOVEL?. M HKA, Antwerp, 07 December 2012 - 21 April 2013.
> Exhibition: Book Lovers 4.0 (Pop-up Bookstore). De Appel Arts Centre, Amsterdam, 28 January 2014 - 02 February 2014.
> Exhibition: THE BOOK LOVERS - A Project about Artist Novels. The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, New York, 25 January 2013 - 09 March 2013.
> Exhibition: The Preparation of the Novel (Book Lovers 5.0). Fabra i Coats - Centre d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Barcelona, 18 July 2014 - 05 September 2014.
> Ensemble: The Artist's Novel.