Last week I was fully immersed. No, I haven’t been baptised. It’s my brain that’s been immersed. First, I went to see Moonage Daydream, the latest documentary about David Bowie, and I’m still reeling from the impact. The music, the images, the chaos, the peace, the noise, the words, the lights, the movement, the calm – it was like being caught in a whirlwind with only short breaks to catch your breath. A terrific whirlwind if you’re a Bowie fan, which I most definitely am.
Sadly, or maybe fortunately, you can’t see into another person’s brain, but I suspect that the turmoil of Moonage Daydream is meant to reflect the constant activity of Bowie’s endlessly curious and searching mind. Despite watching over two hours of concert footage, interviews, news reels, video clips and thoughts from the man himself, I’m no closer to understanding the mind of a creative genius. All I know is that I’d love to experience the whole thing again. And I’m sure the cinema would be very grateful if I did, considering that there were only five of us there. Clearly, Newbury wasn’t ready for such an intense Bowie experience. Or hadn’t been dragged there by their obsessed spouse.
For my second total immersion of the week, I went to see Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirror Rooms exhibition at Tate Modern in London. There’s no problem with poor attendance there. The show opened for a year in June 2021, but is so popular that it’s been extended to June 2023 and it’s sold out every day. Yayoi Kusama is now 93 and the most fascinating woman. Born in 1929 into a very traditional Japanese family, she refused to follow the conventional path of marriage and children, instead insisting on becoming an artist. She spent the 1960s in New York, experiencing first-hand the explosion in art, music and political activism, as well as racial discrimination and sexism, returning to Japan in 1973. The artist has been very open about her mental health problems, checking herself into a psychiatric hospital in Tokyo in 1977. She’s been there ever since, with her studio conveniently close by.
The two infinity mirror rooms, called The Chandelier of Grief and Filled with the Brilliance of Life, are like nothing I’ve ever seen before. They are explosions of reflected light in small dark spaces. The first is truly beautiful, with a slowly turning, flickering chandelier, reflected infinitely in the surrounding mirrors. The second room is even more spectacular: the changing colours of the suspended lights are reflected not only in the mirrored walls, but also in a pool of water below. It is magical. A fleeting insight into the mind of another creative genius. All of this made me quite relieved to return to my more humdrum mind – such brilliance looks exhausting. But it’s a joy to visit.
The infinity reflecting rooms look amazing.
Definitely worth a visit.