Content
Skip to Main ContentAccessibility Help
Toronto

'Different and exciting': Yayoi Kusama's Infinity Mirrors opens at the AGO

Dozens of eager art fans lined up early Saturday to be some of the first to take in the highly anticipated Yayoi Kusama exhibit Infinity Mirrors at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO).

Toronto is the 4th stop on the exhibit's highly anticipated 6-city tour

CBC News ·
Room, Dots Obsession – Love Transformed into Dots, features large dotted balloons surrounded by mirrors. It was made in 2007. (Martin Trainor/CBC News)

Dozens of eager art fans lined up early Saturday to be some of the first to take in the highly anticipated Yayoi Kusama exhibit Infinity Mirrors at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO).

The exhibit, which is spread out over a number of rooms, is littered with the 88-year-old Japanese artist's signature polka dots.

Toronto is the fourth stop on Infinity Mirrors' six-city tour, and the show will run at the AGO until May 27.

In January, thousands logged onto the AGO website to buy tickets for the exhibit, and the AGO managed to sell about 30,000 tickets for the show in just three days.
The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away is, perhaps, the signature Kusama installation and offers viewers, who enter the mirrored room alone in 20 second time slots, an out-of-body experience created through repetition and light. (Evan Mitsui/CBC News)

Bruce Lindsay told CBC Toronto that he was the first person in line to see Infinity Mirrors at the AGO, coming in all the way from Scarborough, and added that the exhibit wasn't too busy on its first day.

"By the time the doors opened, there [were] maybe 50 [people] or something like that, so I think everybody was accommodated," Lindsay said. "It was nice. I don't know how many more people tried to get the same-day tickets." 

Tom Scott said the wait for the rooms lasted between two minutes to 10 minutes, which added up, but he felt it was still worth it.
Bruce Lindsay said he was the first person in line to see Infinity Mirrors at the AGO on Saturday. (CBC)

The AGO allows visitors about 20 to 30 seconds with each room before they have to move on.

Scott also said he didn't feel crowded at Infinity Mirrors.

"They devoted a huge deal of space to the entire exhibit. It was quite comfortable to go around and look at everything and there [were] no problems at all with that," Scott said. 

A drawing point for Christina Rico and Stephanie Rico was the mirrors. Christina said the mirrors change "the perspective of everything."

"It's just the idea behind the exhibit that makes it unique and different and exciting," she added.

"It just kept getting better and better as you progress, so it was really cool," Stephanie said.
The final room is The Obliteration Room. It's painted entirely white and visitors are given dots to stick anywhere they want. By the time the exhibit wraps up in Toronto, the room is supposed to be transformed into a colour explosion. (Martin Trainor/CBC News)

Tanya Walsh was impressed by the colours and lights, but says she wishes she could have spent more time.

"We went through it probably in about an hour or so. I mean we could have spent a lot more time," Walsh said. " I think everybody should have a chance to go see it. I know that it's probably one of the only times that she's doing the exhibit here in Canada, so it's a great chance to go see it for sure."

With files from Natalie Nanowski

CBC's Journalistic Standards and Practices|About CBC News
Corrections and clarifications|Submit a news tip|

Related Stories