The Transformative Art of Davood Emdadian

Fig. 1: Cindy Sherman, Untitled Film Stills #10, 1978

The Illusion of Identity

Identity is a costume with no one underneath. Cindy Sherman’s entire oeuvre proves this unsettling truth—not through theory, but by embodiment. For over forty years, critics have erred in calling her photographs self-portraits. ‘’I never see myself in these images,’’ Sherman confessed in a 1990 New York Times profile, ‘’they’re excavations of something else entirely.’’ (Kimmelman, n.d., as cited in The New York Times)[1]

The Pictures Generation and Postmodern Critique

Cindy Sherman has probed the construction of identity, playing with the visual and cultural codes of art, celebrity, gender, and photography. As a central figure of the Pictures Generation-alongside Richard Prince, Sherrie Levine, and Robert Longo. Sherman responded to the mass media landscape of the 1970s by appropriating and critiquing its imagery with subversive.[2] Her work, particularly Untitled Film Stills (1977–1980), destabilizes the boundaries between originality and imitation, a hallmark of postmodern practice. Her Untitled Film Stills aren’t nostalgic homages to cinema; they’re crime scenes where the victim is the ‘real’ woman (see Fig. 1)-a figure dismantled through ‘’deliberately ambiguous narratives that imitate Hollywood’s production shots.’’ (Hauser & Wirth, 2022)

Femininity as Masquerade in Cindy Sherman's Untitled Film Stills (1977-1980)

De Beauvoir’s Foundation: Gender as Construct

Cindy Sherman's seminal series Untitled Film Stills constitutes a profound visual investigation of femininity as socially constructed performance, engaging in critical dialogue with psychoanalytic and feminist film theories. The work builds upon Simone de Beauvoir's foundational assertion that gender is an acquired rather than innate characteristic, "one is not born, but rather becomes a woman,"(Beauvoir, 2011, p. 283)[3]

Form and Technique: Subverting Cinematic Tropes

Cindy Sherman's groundbreaking Untitled Film Stills comprises seventy black-and-white photographs that revolutionized contemporary photography's relationship with identity, gender, and representation. This iconic series, created when Sherman was just 23 years old, mimics the visual language of 1950s-60s Hollywood, film noir, B movies, and European art-house cinema while deliberately subverting their narratives.[4] What began as experiments in Sherman's apartment eventually expanded to urban and rural locations, requiring assistants to help capture the precisely staged scenes.[5]

Lacan’s Gaze and the Fractured Self

Fig.2: Cindy Sherman, Untitled Film Still #7, 1978

The photographs engage fundamentally with Jacques Lacan's psychoanalytic theory of the gaze, which posits vision as a site of alienation: the subject becomes both viewer and viewed, trapped in what Lacan called the "mirror stage’s" misrecognition. Sherman literalizes this split by embodying stereotypical female roles; the ingénue, the housewife, the femme fatale (Fig. 2), while denying any stable "self" behind them.[6]

Rivière’s Masquerade Theory Embodied

Sherman's work gives visual form to Joan Riviere's 1929 psychoanalytic concept of femininity as defensive masquerade. Riviere's case study of an accomplished professional woman who performed exaggerated femininity to mitigate her "masculine" intellectual success demonstrates how womanhood operates as cultural performance rather than essential quality. As Riviere famously observed, "womanliness could be assumed and worn as a mask," a formulation Sherman literalizes through her serial self-transformations. The photographs confirm Stephen Heath's interpretation that "authentic womanliness is such a mimicry, is the masquerade" - there exists no original femininity behind the performance.[7]

Hal Foster’s Critical Perspective on Cindy Sherman’s Work

Fig. 3: Cindy Sherman, Untitled Film Stills # 2, 1977

Foster positions Sherman within 1970s New York’s artistic milieu, where she emerged alongside peers like Sherrie Levine and Barbara Kruger as part of the "Pictures Generation"– artists critically engaging with mass media’s visual language.[8] His analysis reveals three key dimensions of her practice:

1. The Gaze and Performed Identity

Foster observes Sherman’s unique ability to capture "the female subject under the gaze" while simultaneously exposing the psychological mechanisms behind self-presentation. He notes her subjects "see, of course, but they are much more seen," emphasizing how her work dramatizes the tension between active looking and passive objectification. This duality manifests most powerfully in moments of "psychological estrangement," as seen in Untitled Film Still #2 (1977), (Fig. 3) where the distance between a woman and her mirrored reflection reveals what Foster calls "the gap between the imagined and actual body-images."(Foster, 2012)

2. From Cinematic Tropes to Cultural Critique

Foster traces Sherman’s evolution from early experiments with gender performativity (1975-82) through her later grotesque phases (1983-90s), arguing her work constitutes "an epitome of the death of the author."(Foster, 2012) He particularly emphasizes how her 2000s Hollywood/Hamptons series critiques ageism and class anxiety through portraits of "nouveau-riche ladies...stretched to the point where the cracks surface."(Foster, 2012)

3. Biographical Allegory

Contrary to early readings of Sherman’s work as anti-biographical, Foster identifies a subtle personal narrative: "the arc of her subjects from ingénue to dame is not unlike that of her own life."(Foster, 2012) He frames this as a generational allegory, where Sherman’s artistic evolution mirrors how "the postmodernist generation...had that future hijacked by a reactionary turn."(Foster, 2012).

Mulvey’s Male Gaze and Sherman’s Subversion

Laura Mulvey's groundbreaking 1975 essay "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" provides a crucial framework for understanding Sherman's intervention. Mulvey's analysis of classical Hollywood cinema's "male gaze" reveals three interlocking perspectives that objectify women: the camera's gaze, the male characters' gaze, and the audience's gaze. Sherman replicates these visual structures while systematically exposing their artificiality. The photographs exemplify Mulvey's observation that in patriarchal visual culture, women exist as "to-be-looked-at-ness," their appearance coded for maximum erotic impact while remaining narratively passive.[9]

Anticipating Butler and Irigaray: Gender as Performance

The series anticipates later feminist theorists like Judith Butler and Luce Irigaray. Butler's notion of gender as performative iteration finds visual precedent in Sherman's work, particularly her demonstration that identity emerges through repetitive citation of cultural codes. She claims that “gender ontology is reducible to the play of appearance.” (Butler, 1999, p. 47)[10] Irigaray's concept of woman as "enveloped in the needs/desires/fantasies of others" manifests in Sherman's careful reconstruction of media-derived female types.[11]

Cindy Sherman's Untitled Film Stills: Deconstructing Identity Through Cinematic Masquerade

Fig. 4: Cindy Sherman, Untitled Film Stills # 21, 1978

Ultimately, Untitled Film Stills transcends artistic achievement to function as theoretical discourse. The series materializes complex psychoanalytic and feminist concepts about gender construction, demonstrating how visual culture produces and naturalizes feminine identity. Sherman's photographs don't merely depict women - they reveal Woman as cultural fiction, showing how identity forms through perpetual masquerade within patriarchal systems of representation.

Each carefully constructed image functions as an enigma. Untitled Film Still #21 (see Fig. 4) exemplifies Sherman's approach: a woman in vintage 1950s attire gazes anxiously beyond the frame, evoking suspense about an unseen narrative. As MoMA notes, these works "recall the film stills used to promote movies" while remaining intentionally ambiguous, inviting viewers to project their own interpretations. (MoMA, n.d.) This calculated ambiguity transforms Sherman's photographs from mere images into psychological provocations - they're less about what's shown than about the cultural baggage viewers bring to them.

Sherman's process reveals her radical approach to identity construction. As she famously stated: "I wish I could treat every day as Halloween, and get dressed up and go out into the world as some eccentric character" (MoMA, n.d.). In the Film Stills, she single-handedly embodied every role-not just as model, but as photographer, director, costume designer, and stylist.[12] Sherman depicts: “When I prepare each character I have to consider what I’m working against; that people are going to look under the make-up and wigs for that common denominator, the recognizable. I’m trying to make other people recognize something of themselves rather than me.” (Schulz-Hoffman, 1991, p. 30)[13]

Fig.5: Cindy Sherman, Untitled Film Stills # 35, 1979

Through wigs, makeup, and thrift-store costumes, Sherman transformed into archetypes: the jaded seductress, the unhappy housewife (Fig. 5), the vulnerable ingénue. What is hidden behind this farce is only a “fractured being (is) defined by a phallic lack.” (Heartney, 2007, p. 173)[14] These weren't characters but cultural caricatures "invented characters and scenarios [that] imitated the style of production shots."(Hauser & Wirth, 2022) The resulting images expose how mass media, particularly cinema, reduces female identity to reproducible tropes.

Performing Gender: Judith Butler’s Drag Theory and Cindy Sherman’s Subversive Repetitions

1. Drag as Revelatory Framework in Sherman’s Film Stills

Judith Butler’s conceptualization of "drag" as an exposé of gender’s performative foundations provides a critical lens for analyzing Cindy Sherman’s Untitled Film Stills (1977–1980). Butler’s assertion that gender constitutes a "stylized repetition of acts" within rigid social frameworks is materially realized in Sherman’s serial embodiment of cinematic archetypes-the ingénue, the femme fatale, the suburban housewife.

Each photograph stages what Butler terms a "failed repetition" (Butler, 1991, p. 24), wherein Sherman’s exaggerated performances (e.g., conspicuously artificial wigs, melodramatic poses) parallel drag’s capacity to reveal gender’s artifice. Untitled Film Still #21 (see Fig. 4) exemplifies this: while adopting film noir’s "spider woman" trope, Sherman amplifies its theatricality through harsh lighting and fragmented composition, denaturalizing the very femininity it appears to depict. Sherman’s deliberate exposure of performative mechanics-visible makeup seams, conspicuously staged settings-corresponds to Butler’s contention that heterosexuality must continually repeat itself to sustain the "illusion of its own uniformity."[15] Both artists-theorists demonstrate how such repetitions inevitably falter, exposing gender’s constructed core.

Fig. 6: Cindy Sherman, Untitled Film Stills # 3, 1977

2. The Paradox of Agency and Constraint

Butler’s caution against conflating performativity with individual agency proves essential to understanding Sherman’s oeuvre. While her self-portraits ostensibly assert creative control (as photographer, model, and art director), they simultaneously underscore gender’s discursive boundaries. As Lebovici observes, Sherman’s work, like Claude Cahun’s, employs "theatrical costumes and improvised backdrops" to frame gender as masquerade.[16] Yet Sherman’s reliance on Hollywood’s visual lexicon-such as the infantilized secretary in Untitled Film Still #3 (Fig. 6, 1977) confirms Butler’s argument that subversion occurs within historically conditioned systems.

Technical Evolution and Expanded Narratives

The series' technical evolution mirrors its conceptual depth. Sherman initially worked in her apartment, using domestic spaces to heighten the tension between private and performed selves. Later locations-urban alleys, rural highways - became backdrops for "disguise and theatricality, mystery and voyeurism, melancholy and vulnerability." (Artlead, 2022) This geographical expansion paralleled Sherman's growing sophistication in manipulating cinematic conventions: dramatic lighting, voyeuristic angles, and carefully crafted "moments" that suggested larger, nonexistent narratives. Sherman's subsequent series developed these ideas further. The Rear Screen Projections (1980) abandoned real locations for studio setups using projected backgrounds, a technique borrowed from Alfred Hitchcock. (Hauser & Wirth, 2022) This transition marked Sherman's move from parodying specific film genres to interrogating the very apparatus of image production. The controversial Centerfolds (1981) took this further, appropriating the visual language of men's magazine centerfolds to expose, "the way we consume images - especially of women."(Hauser & Wirth, 2022). Commissioned then censored by Artforum, these works demonstrated how Sherman's "feminist art" made the establishment uncomfortable by holding up a mirror to its voyeurism.

A Legacy of Provocation

From Film Stills to Centerfolds, Sherman’s work revolutionized photography by collapsing the roles of artist, subject, and critic. As MoMA asserts, she "opened the door for generations to rethink photography as a medium." (MoMA, n.d.) Her enduring influence lies in this paradox: by embodying cultural clichés, she revealed their emptiness-yet left unresolved whether her art liberates or entraps the female image. Sherman’s work is not about revealing identity but about its endless fabrication. In an era of social media and digital avatars, her exploration of selfhood as mutable and mediated feels more urgent than ever. Whether read as feminist critique, postmodern pastiche, Sherman’s photographs compel us to confront the fictions we inhabit. She "revolutionized the role of the camera in artistic practice," transforming it from a documentary tool into an instrument of cultural critique. (Hauser & Wirth, 2022) The Film Stills don't just depict women; they reveal Woman as a cultural fiction, endlessly reproduced but never real.

Essay by malihe Norouzi / Independent Art Scholar

References:

The Elixir of Immortality: From Mesopotamia to the Present

The Role of Balance in the Elements of Painting

Reza Hedayat’s series of paintings[1], titled The Garden of no fall, embodies a poetic space brimming with vibrant colors. Hedayat is an artist whose visual language is deeply influenced by Eastern art, yet his formal simplicity and richly personal chromatic innovations allow his work to transcend geographical boundaries. In his compositions, neither space dominates the figures nor do the figures overpower the space; color emerges from form, and form arises from color. His paintings achieve a state of equilibrium, where all elements merge into an idyllic, paradisiacal vision.

Hedayat’s works connect the viewer’s imagination to ancient murals in art history. Rituals for survival and the mystical significance of magic in the past have given way to an eternal garden overflowing with pleasure, beauty, and abundance. These frames have been extracted from the depths of history and brought into the contemporary era.

Kurdistan, Iran, Mesopotamia

In part of his interview, Reza Hedayat emphasized his Iranian identity and spoke about his works: "Naturally, what exists for me is the environment in which I was shaped. Sometimes, this canvas is Kurdistan for me, sometimes Iran, and at other times Mesopotamia—meaning I consider all these places my own canvas. All of these become my land, and everything within them is what exists in my homeland."[2]

In Mesopotamian art, we encounter a ritualistic and ceremonial essence. The worship of lords and priestly rulers has saturated the atmosphere of this art.[3] By borrowing historical and geographical elements from the past and the contemporary environment in which he lived, Hedayat chose a more delicate medium than stone engravings and carvings. His paintings pulsate with magic, fantasy, poetry, and literature—as if inviting the viewer to beauty and earthly life. He has intelligently constructed this space in two distinct sections, which flow alongside each other like a roaring river yet remain unmixed—a feature reminiscent of Mesopotamian (the land between two rivers) culture and art. (fig. 1)

Historical and Geographical Elements

His technique is such that forms emerge from uniform, luminous color fields. In effect, the artist overlays his monochromatic background onto a richly textured, labor-intensive surface, allowing elements meant to occupy the rear plane—such as a surging river—to flow dynamically across the composition. (fig. 2) This method evokes an emphasis on ancestral history and its significance from the artist’s perspective—a deliberate foregrounding of Eastern civilization in the present moment.

In this vein, Ahmad Reza Dalvand has written about Reza Hedayat’s pictorial style: "Reza Hedayat engages in a paradoxical interplay with his profusion of colors on the canvas. By layering darks over lights and vice versa, he channels luminosity through unpredictable apertures within darkness. Tirelessly, every painterly gesture he makes cultivates the surface, striving for harmony and rhythm in his works. This painter tames vast, controlled chromatic expanses with flat overlays, orchestrating a vision where beasts, birds, and humans coexist in paradisiacal peace."[4]

Spontaneous Discoveries in Form and Color

For him, painting is a form of exploration—akin to the natural forms and motifs that emerge and manifest within his canvases. It is as though the act of painting presents no particular difficulty for this artist, as if everything is already fully formed in his mind, waiting only to be effortlessly transferred onto the canvas. He state: “painting, for me, is like breathing. If I were to deliberate over it, it would be like the tale of a man who cannot decide whether to keep his beard under the blanket or over it while sleeping. But I know my reserves are not scarce, and unconsciously, I enter the storeroom and select my desire from the darkness. Thus, my reason and intuition are in perfect balance, intertwined like night and day, with neither holding dominance over the other."[5]

Wandering Through the Literature of Nizami

In his artistic statement, the artist acknowledges drawing inspiration from the poetry of Nizami Ganjavi, describing his paintings as the result of wandering through Nizami’s garden.[6] In "Haft Peykar" (The Seven Beauties), we encounter a garden embodying the quintessential characteristics of Persian gardens—a space strikingly comparable to Hedayat’s paintings. This garden, the "Bagh-e Khajeh" (Master’s Garden), consists of two distinct yet nested sections, enclosed on all sides. Similarly, Hedayat’s works feature two sharply divided planes of color and form that interlace without merging, confined within the canvas’s frame. These structural parallels between the rich literary heritage of the artist’s cultural geography and his paintings amplify the complexities of poetic imagination in his visual realm.

Nizami’s garden is evoked through fragrant earth, celestial fruits, youthful cypresses, flowing streams, and melodious birds, while the presence of women is particularly emphasized in a dedicated section called "Bustan" (The Flower Garden). Upon closer inspection of Hedayat’s paintings, one encounters a woman playing the harp "Chang", whom Nizami once poetically termed "la’bat-e chang-navaz"(the enchantress of the harp).[7] (fig. 3) These vivid tableaux from Nizami’s verse find direct visual echoes in Reza Hedayat’s works. He achieves a potent artistic space, forged through a commitment to luminous, life-giving colors. Beauty in his compositions emerges from the artist’s imagination, settles upon the viewer’s senses, and immerses them within the frames.

1.Reza, hedayat. 2025, the garden of no fall, acrylic on canvas, 70×220cm, negar gallery, tehran, personal picture.

2. Reza, hedayat. 2025, the garden of no fall, acrylic on canvas, 40×55cm, negar gallery, tehran, personal picture.

3. Reza, hedayat. 2025, the garden of no fall, detail of lmage, acrylic on canvas, 70×220cm, negar gallery, tehran, personal picture.

Author: Firoozeh saboori

References:

1. Reza hedayat (1966 Iran).

A Ghanaian Visionary Reshaping Contemporary Portraiture

Amoako Boafo (1984) is a Ghanaian artist who has significantly influenced contemporary portraiture, reshaping cultural narratives within Africa and the African diaspora. His innovative approach to portraiture, using his fingers instead of traditional brushes, allows for a tactile connection between the artist and subject, conveying emotional depth and personality.[1] Boafo moved to Vienna in 2013 and was introduced to European portraiture while also facing racial marginalization within the Austrian art world. His experience of rejection in Europe sparked a desire to celebrate Black culture and identity through art in a way that resonated with his own vision of their strength, beauty, and complexity.[2] This deepened sense of purpose is reflected in the emotional intensity of his work. Boafo’s experience of exclusion ignited a profound desire to reclaim Black identity through his art, challenging the narratives that have often reduced Black figures to stereotypes or tragedy. His use of color and form reflects this desire—transforming traditional portraiture into a powerful celebration of his subjects' individuality.[3]

Transcultural Synthesis: Merging Ghanaian Heritage with European Art History

His work merges his Ghanaian heritage with European art history, challenging the exclusion of Black artists from traditional Western art spaces. His portraits highlight the strength and beauty of Black individuals, defying stereotypes and celebrating their presence. Influenced by artists like Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, and Kehinde Wiley, Boafo weaves elements from these iconic figures into his own vision. For example, while Klimt’s ornamental style and use of gold leaf are clearly present in some of Boafo’s work, Boafo reimagines these elements as empowering symbols, not just decorative accents. Similarly, where Kehinde Wiley’s portraits of Black figures reclaim the space of classical portraiture, Boafo goes a step further by using his fingers to create intimate, tactile connections that communicate a deeper emotional bond between the subject and the viewer.[4] In this, Boafo’s work actively centers Black subjectivity, joy, and the Black gaze, allowing the figures to assert themselves with confidence and presence, rather than being viewed as passive subjects. In doing so, Boafo merges historical and contemporary influences into a distinctive style that emphasizes confidence, style, and individuality.[5]

Fig. 1. moako Boafo, Enyonam’s Black Shawl, 2020, Oil and paper transfer on canvas. 

In his practice, Boafo uses color not only as a visual tool but also as a form of communication, reflecting moods and emotions within his subjects and his own artistic process. His finger-painted portraits push the boundaries of conventional portraiture, blending painting with sculptural elements to create expressive and dynamic works (Fig. 1, 2020).[6] His expressive portraits of friends and acquaintances highlight the richness and diversity of Blackness while challenging media and cultural misconceptions that dehumanize Black individuals.[7]

Institutional Breakthrough: Proper Love at the Belvedere Museum

Fig. 2. Amoako Boafo, Papillon Hug, 2024, Oil and paper transfer on canvas. 

The Proper Love (Fig. 2, 2024), exhibition at the Belvedere Museum in Vienna, Austria, marks a pivotal moment in Boafo’s career. It is his first solo show in a major European institution, representing a major milestone in his artistic journey. This exhibition expands Boafo’s exploration of Black identity by focusing not only on individual strength but also on the collective experience of Blackness. While his earlier portraits focused on individual strength, Proper Love expands these themes into a collective experience, inviting viewers to witness the emotional resonance and complexity of Blackness on a larger scale. Featuring over sixty works, the exhibition explores themes of intimacy, Black identity, and representation. Boafo’s use of his fingertips in painting figurative portraits shifts the gaze away from the historical White-dominated narratives of Black bodies, instead presenting his subjects—his community—as confident, bold, and vulnerable. This method emphasizes a personal connection with his subjects, drawing viewers into the emotional depth and joy of the Black experience.[8]

His exhibition includes a new work, Papillon Hug, displayed within the Volta Pavilion, a structure crafted from reclaimed timber sourced in Ghana. This pavilion symbolizes the fusion of African and European cultural legacies, enhancing the viewer’s connection with Boafo’s art.[9] By incorporating this unique architectural element, Boafo challenges traditional representations of Blackness, allowing his work to be viewed on its own terms.[10] The pavilion invites a dialogue between African and European cultural histories, while the juxtaposition of Boafo’s art with iconic European masterpieces like Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss encourages a broader conversation about the shared histories of Black and European art.[11]

Redefining Black Representation Through Tactile Intimacy

Ultimately, Proper Love redefines how art can be experienced, promoting a deeper understanding of Black identity, community, and the importance of self-representation. In Boafo’s work, the focus is not just on how Blackness has been historically marginalized, but on how it can be celebrated, revered, and viewed with the same dignity as any other cultural narrative. Boafo’s practice serves as an act of self-preservation, a powerful tool to assert Black humanity, and an invitation to all viewers to engage with Black identity on its own terms.[12]

Essay by Malihe Norouzi / Independent Art Scholar

References:

Kusama's Provocative Vision

Yayoi Kusama (1929), the Japanese avant-garde artist, has captivated the art world for decades with her bold, immersive, and often provocative creations. Known for her iconic polka dots and infinity rooms, Kusama’s work transcends traditional boundaries, blending art, performance, and psychology into a singular vision.[1] While her installations and paintings have garnered widespread acclaim, her sculptures particularly those exploring controversial themes remain a lesser-discussed yet vital aspect of her oeuvre.[2] These works, often characterized by their phallic forms and visceral textures, challenge societal taboos and invite viewers to confront their own perceptions of sexuality, obsession, and the human body.[3]

1. Yayoi Kusama, The Armchair from Accumulation No.1, 1962

Sex, Obsession, and Phallic Forms

Emerging in the 1960s during a time of cultural upheaval and sexual liberation, Kusama’s sculptures reflect her personal struggles with mental health, particularly her obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and her defiance of patriarchal norms. Through her art, she transforms vulnerability into power, using the body as a site of both rebellion and healing. This article delves into Kusama’s most erotic sculpture project, “The Armchair” piece, examining how it redefines the boundaries of art, challenges societal expectations, and continues to resonate in contemporary discourse.[4]

The Armchair: Domestic Object Transformed

The Armchair piece, part of Kusama’s Accumulation series, is one of her most provocative and iconic bodies of work. Created in the 1960s, this series prominently features phallic imagery, a recurring motif in Kusama’s art. The Armchair transforms a mundane household object into a surreal, almost grotesque sculpture by covering it with countless soft, fabric protrusions resembling phallic forms. This juxtaposition of the familiar and the unsettling forces viewers to grapple with their own discomfort and curiosity. [5]

Psychological Roots: Art as Therapy

Kusama’s use of phallic forms in The Armchair was deeply influenced by her childhood experiences with sexuality and her struggles with mental health. As she explains in her autobiography, Infinity Net, “I was fighting pain, anxiety, and fear every day, and the only method I had to cure my illness was to keep creating art” (Kusama, cited in Improvised Life, 2013).[6] Through the repetitive use of phallic motifs, Kusama blurs the boundaries between obsession and compulsion, as well as attraction and repulsion. This tension mirrors her personal experiences with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and her ongoing effort to confront and reclaim control over her fears. As Kusama herself explained, she “began making penises in order to heal her feelings of disgust towards sex. Reproducing the objects…was her way of conquering the fear” (Kusama, cited in Museum of Modern Art, n.d.). By transforming a mundane domestic object into something simultaneously erotic and unsettling, Kusama compels viewers to engage with their own discomfort regarding themes of sexuality and the human body. This interplay between the personal and the universal underscores the psychological and emotional depth of her work.[7]

Tactile Duality: The Abject and Alluring

Kusama’s use of soft, domestic materials creates a tactile, body-like quality that invites touch while simultaneously provoking unease.[8] This duality aligns with Julia Kristeva’s theory of abjection, as outlined in her 1980 book Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection. Kristeva describes abjection as the psychological state of being simultaneously repelled and fascinated by something that disturbs the boundaries between the self and the other, often involving themes of the body, decay, and taboo.[9] In Kusama’s work, the phallic forms both familiar and grotesque embody this tension, challenging viewers to confront their own discomfort with the boundaries of the human body and societal norms.[10]

Between Minimalism and Post-Minimalism

Kusama’s Accumulation series occupies a fascinating intersection between her practice and the emerging Minimalist movement. These works, composed of ready-made furniture covered in small, sewn protuberances. The repetitive patterns, previously confined to the canvas, now extend into three-dimensional space, enveloping everyday objects. Metaphorically, the protrusions are often interpreted as phallic forms, reflecting Kusama’s confrontation with her own sexual anxieties. Yet, beyond their psychological resonance, the series also challenges viewers through its sheer physical presence. Kusama’s relationship with Minimalism is complex and often contradictory. While her Accumulation series shares Minimalism’s emphasis on repetition and seriality, her approach diverges significantly in tone and intent. Donald Judd’s seminal essay Specific Objects (1965) notably overlooks the psychoanalytic dimensions of Kusama’s work, describing her sculptures merely as “strange objects.” [11]

Beyond Minimalism: The Personal in Repetition

Robert Morris’s Notes on Sculpture (1966), a key theoretical contribution to Minimalism, further develops Judd’s ideas through a phenomenological lens, emphasizing the viewer’s bodily engagement with art. Yet, Kusama’s work resists such detached analysis; her accumulations are intensely personal, imbued with sensuality and humor qualities largely absent from the austere geometries of Minimalist contemporaries like Frank Stella or Ad Reinhardt. [12]

Legacy and Influence: Post-Minimalist Connections

Kusama’s practice also aligns with, and diverges from, the concerns of Post-Minimalism. While Minimalism often evokes industrial production and impersonal systems, Kusama’s repetition serves a more intimate, therapeutic function. Her obsessive, labor-intensive process destabilizes the modernist obsession with novelty, even as she pushes the boundaries of aesthetic innovation. This tension complicates linear narratives of art history, situating her work in dialogue with both Minimalism and its aftermath. Her connections to Post-Minimalist artists like Eva Hesse and Carolee Schneemann further underscore her influence. Like Hesse, Kusama explores the organic and the absurd, while her participatory performances echo Schneemann’s confrontational approach to the body and gender.

At the same time, her contributions to American Pop art and European concrete art have cemented her legacy as a pivotal figure in 20th-century art. While her Accumulation series offers a compelling lens through which to examine her relationship with Minimalism and Post-Minimalism, Kusama’s enduring relevance lies in her ability to continually produce work that challenges, captivates, and transcends artistic boundaries. [13]

Essay by malihe Norouzi / Independent Art Scholar

References: