WNDR Museum, Chicago’s original immersive art and technology experience, located in the city’s West Loop, today announced the U.S. debut of the yellow Dots Obsession, a three-story immersive infinity installation by the globally iconic Yayoi Kusama, on Friday, May 12. Featuring a series of floating yellow and black polka dots alongside walk-in and peep-in installations, Dots Obsession will fill WNDR’s atrium and transport visitors into Kusama’s obsession with polka dots, repetition, celestial bodies and the experience of the infinite.
Yayoi Kusama's yellow Dots Obsession. Credit WNDR Museum
“Since my childhood, I have always made works with polka dots. Earth, moon, sun and human beings all represent dots; a single particle among billions,” Yayoi Kusama has said.
The collaboration between Louis Vuitton and Kusama, first in 2012 and then again in 2023, has further expanded attention and affection of the 94-year-old renowned artist. While Yayoi Kusama fans in New York City are anticipating her upcoming May 2023 show featuring new work at David Zwirner, the presentation of yellow Dots Obsession at WNDR Museum offers the unique opportunity for an up-close and personal experience of the artist’s vision.
Dots Obsession was created by Yayoi Kusama in 2008 and has been exhibited around the world. After making its debut in London, the work has appeared in Lithuania, Singapore and Australia, and was most recently on view at Museum MACAN in Jakarta, Indonesia in 2018. This will be the first time that yellow Dots Obsession will be installed in the United States.
The installation of Dots Obsession furthers WNDR Museum’s commitment to making fine art accessible and approachable, notably featuring the Midwest’s only Kusama Infinity Room, Let’s Survive Forever, since WNDR’s inception in 2018. Serving as a longtime centerpiece of its flagship Chicago location, Let’s Survive Forever is slated to close at WNDR Museum Chicago on April 30 before traveling to WNDR Boston which opens this summer at 500 Washington Street.
Created by Kusama in 2017 and considered to be one of her masterpieces, Let’s Survive Forever features stainless steel balls suspended from the ceiling and arranged on the floor; an enclosed column within the room offers yet another mirrored environment accessible through peepholes. A sense of infinity is offered through the play of reflections between the circular shapes and the surrounding mirrors on the room’s walls.
“Yayoi Kusama is perhaps the most prolific and celebrated living artist with a truly inspiring history of creative genius, and we are committed to the idea that her work should be experienced by the public as a source of awe and inspiration,” said WNDR Museum Creative Director David Allen. “At WNDR Museum, we are disrupting the sense of exclusivity and distance that too often has marked the experience of art, and we are redefining the museum as a source of engagement and inspirational playfulness – in that spirit, we’re thrilled to bring these iconic Kusama infinity room installations to WNDR guests in Chicago and across the country.”
In addition to Dots Obsession in Chicago and Let’s Survive Forever soon to be arriving in Boston, visitors to WNDR Museum’s recently opened Seattle location will find Starry Pumpkin (2016), an iconic work of Kusama’s pumpkin sculpture series.
WNDR Museum offers an unparalleled art and technology experience. WNDR guests are immersed in a multi-dimensional journey in which they participate and engage in the artworks, interacting with various installations through motion, sound, taste, smell and more. WNDR Museum is home to more than 20 installations that are designed to awaken guests’ senses through mind-expanding experience and provocation.
Open seven days a week, WNDR Museum was recently voted one of the top five immersive art experiences in the country by USA Today’s 2022 Reader Poll. The original WNDR Museum is located in Chicago’s West Loop, and WNDR Museum San Diego and WNDR Museum Seattle are now open, with WNDR Museum Boston opening in early summer 2023. Additional locations of WNDR Museum will be announced in the coming months. Tickets are timed entry and should be purchased in advance.
Tickets & Hours
General admission tickets to WNDR Museum Chicago start at $32 and must be purchased in advance at www.wndrchicago.com. Children’s tickets are available for ages 12 and under starting at $22. Children under ages two and under receive free admission. Those looking to elevate their WNDR Museum experience can take advantage of WNDR’s new Premium Pack for $50 per ticket. The Premium Pack includes expedited entry into WNDR Museum, a limited-edition, collector pin (which rotates designs seasonally), WNDR photo memory, 10 percent off at The WNDR Store and a WNDR re-run, allowing them to enjoy a second lap through WNDR Museum to revisit their favorite installations before exiting.
Chicago Hours of Operation:
Monday - Thursday: 12 p.m. – 8 p.m.
Friday - Saturday: 10 a.m. – 10 p.m.
Sunday: 10 a.m. – 8 p.m.
For more information, visit www.wndrmuseum.com and follow WNDR
Museum on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok.
About WNDR Museum
WNDR Museum is Chicago’s original immersive art and technology experience located in the city’s West Loop neighborhood at 1130 W. Monroe St. with additional locations now open in San Diego, Seattle and soon to open in Boston, and more to be announced. Filled with interactive artworks by cutting edge artists, collectives, technologists, designers and makers, WNDR disrupts and redefines the traditional museum experience. As guests travel through WNDR Museum, they are taken on a multi-dimensional journey in which they serve as an extension of each creator by interacting with various installations. In July 2022, WNDR Museum was voted one of the top five immersive art experiences in the country by USA Today’s Reader Poll. For more information, visit WNDRmuseum.com
About Yayoi Kusama
Born and raised in Japan, Yayoi Kusama emerged as an artist during the Vietnam War era and continues to make work that reaches diverse audiences worldwide. Throughout her prolific practice spanning over six decades, Kusama has consistently created artwork about repetition and the concept of infinity. In 1965, Kusama produced her first Infinity Mirror Room. This marked a move from the material repetition found in the artist’s paintings and sculptures to the illusion of infinite space using mirrors. Since then, Kusama has made more than twenty unique rooms.