Before the first dot. Yayoi Kusama’s 'The obliteration room'
The installation of Yayoi Kusama’s popular interactive children’s project has taken the work to a new scale, filling our Children’s Art Centre at GOMA. This space has been transformed into a series of domestic—style rooms, reminiscent of the average Australian home, filled with furniture and objects painted entirely white. This functions as a blank canvas that becomes ‘obliterated’ over the course of the exhibition through the application of brightly coloured dot stickers.
This series of images shows The obliteration room 2002-present in its pristine state before the exhibition opened, along with the application of the very first dot stickers.

Yayoi Kusama, Japan b.1929 / The obliteration room 2002-present / Furniture, white paint, dot stickers / Collaboration between Yayoi Kusama and Queensland Art Gallery. Commissioned Queensland Art Gallery, Australia. Gift of the artist through the QAG Foundation 2012 / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery / © Yayoi Kusama / Installation view of ‘Yayoi Kusama: Look Now, See Forever’ 2011 / View full image

Yayoi Kusama, Japan b.1929 / The obliteration room 2002-present / Furniture, white paint, dot stickers / Collaboration between Yayoi Kusama and Queensland Art Gallery. Commissioned Queensland Art Gallery, Australia. Gift of the artist through the QAG Foundation 2012 / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery / © Yayoi Kusama / Installation view of ‘Yayoi Kusama: Look Now, See Forever’ 2011 / View full image

Yayoi Kusama, Japan b.1929 / The obliteration room 2002-present / Furniture, white paint, dot stickers / Collaboration between Yayoi Kusama and Queensland Art Gallery. Commissioned Queensland Art Gallery, Australia. Gift of the artist through the QAG Foundation 2012 / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery / © Yayoi Kusama / Installation view of ‘Yayoi Kusama: Look Now, See Forever’ 2011 / View full image

Yayoi Kusama, Japan b.1929 / The obliteration room 2002-present / Furniture, white paint, dot stickers / Collaboration between Yayoi Kusama and Queensland Art Gallery. Commissioned Queensland Art Gallery, Australia. Gift of the artist through the QAG Foundation 2012 / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery / © Yayoi Kusama / Installation view of ‘Yayoi Kusama: Look Now, See Forever’ 2011 / View full image

Yayoi Kusama, Japan b.1929 / The obliteration room 2002-present / Furniture, white paint, dot stickers / Collaboration between Yayoi Kusama and Queensland Art Gallery. Commissioned Queensland Art Gallery, Australia. Gift of the artist through the QAG Foundation 2012 / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery / © Yayoi Kusama / Installation view of ‘Yayoi Kusama: Look Now, See Forever’ 2011 / View full image