Bloomberg Philanthropies is Helping Bring Yayoi Kusama’s ‘Narcissus Garden’ to the Rockaways
Art lovers and Instagram fanatics will both have a good reason to head to the Rockaways this summer: Yayoi Kusama’s shimmering “Narcissus Garden” will be installed there starting July 1.
The work is made up of 1,500 mirrored stainless steel spheres placed in the imposing confines of Fort Tilden, a former Army base on the beach in Queens. The spheres — about a foot in diameter — will reflect and distort the industrial surroundings.
Ms. Kusama first presented the piece in 1966 at the Venice Biennale, where she stood with a sign that read “Your Narcissism for Sale” and offered to sell the spheres to passers-by for about $2. The piece has since been installed around the world, including in Brazil and Central Park. And while critics suggest that “Narcissus Garden” is a protest against the commercialization of art and a culture of vanity, the work — like many of Ms. Kusama’s other mirror-based pieces — is also ready-made for selfies.
The building that will house the work was a former train garage and repair facility; more recently it hosted Patti Smith’s “Resilience of the Dreamer” in 2014. Ms. Kusama is working closely with Klaus Biesenbach, the director of MoMA PS1, and his team to create a new site-specific version of “Narcissus Garden.” “It will look very, very different than before,” Mr. Biesenbach said in a phone interview...