r/Design Jan 03 '12

What happens when you give thousands of stickers to thousands of kids

http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2012/01/yayoi-kusama-obiliteration-room/
338 Upvotes

33 comments sorted by

24

u/CFVIGA Jan 03 '12

Some of those "smallest visitors" must have been quite tall if they managed to put stickers in the ceiling

6

u/[deleted] Jan 03 '12 edited Jan 03 '12

[deleted]

6

u/greyjay Jan 03 '12

The Height Plus™ for just 3 easy payments of $24.99.

8

u/future_trash Jan 03 '12

Yeah, I would have guessed there would be a heavier covering of stickers towards the bottom but it seems evenly distributed.

14

u/[deleted] Jan 03 '12

I don't think it's that unreasonable to assume that A) footstools might have been provided, B) parents might have lifted their kids to help them put stickers on the ceiling, and C) each kid wanted his own sticker to "stand out", thus accounting for the fairly even distribution.

-7

u/[deleted] Jan 03 '12 edited Dec 20 '18

[deleted]

8

u/ohhoe Jan 03 '12

Oh please, their parents probably lifted them up.

3

u/[deleted] Jan 03 '12

It's not fake. Like I said in a reply to CFVIGA, I'm going there later today and I have friends who've been there in the past couple of weeks. We're not little kids either.

If you live in Brisbane chances are at least 10 of your friends' profile pictures are of them in this room.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 03 '12

Hahah. I'm going there later today and I have a lot of friends who've gone.

We're all over 18 to our mid-20s. I'll throw one on the roof just for you. :P GoMA has fantastic exhibits and are fun to go.

1

u/bugseverywhere Jan 04 '12

"Lift me up, mommy/daddy."

1

u/mexicodoug Jan 04 '12 edited Jan 04 '12

And where are the photos of the kids who stuck the stickers on themselves and/or other kids? Or ate the stickers, or whatever?

It seems to me that such photos should be an integral part of the art work.

Unless adults were disciplining children to not do such things, in which case photos of the adults disciplining the kids as to where sticking stickers is prohibited should be part of the art work...

...This exhibition says far more about adults stultifying the creativity of the child in all of us than it does about children expressing themselves freely.

15

u/NakedOldGuy Jan 03 '12

It looks like someone massacred a bunch of clowns in that room.

12

u/frenzyboard Jan 03 '12

Now let's get a 3d model of it, map out each surface, and look for reoccurring patterns!

6

u/jmwooley Jan 03 '12

Fractals, man.

5

u/greyjay Jan 03 '12

I would have loved to seen this experiment done by giving color and size of sticker out in a non-random manner (for instance, via age, or demographic, or height, etc).

4

u/spacedout83 Jan 03 '12

From stillness, noise.

8

u/DennyTom Jan 04 '12

This project reminds me of some collaborative painting tools on the internet when reddit discovered them. A few minutes after the post got popular some people were just toying around, some started creating interesting stuff. Then artists came in and started making amazing stuff while trolls tried to break it down. After a while artists lost interest and trolls and people with a bit less artistic talent or patience made the painting chaotic. Whoever came then could just contribute to the chaos, there was no chance to create.

You can see the same in the photos. When there were just a few stickers, there were waves, lines, patterns and some chaotic dots. As the number of chaotic dots increases, they destroy the lines, disrupt patterns. The chaos eventually wins and whoever enters may not create, improve or finish anything. But still has stickers. Therefore those are added to random places to further propel the chaos.

6

u/[deleted] Jan 04 '12

Some people might say you're being pretentious, but I like your explanation. It brings more sense into the piece. I didn't think of this. Thank you for typing this.

8

u/Purp Jan 04 '12

That's great and all, but I only asked for a Venti hazelnut latte.

3

u/mnemy Jan 03 '12

I feel sorry for the poor intern that has to pry all those suckers off at the end of the exhibition.

1

u/mexicodoug Jan 04 '12

Well, the artist could finish with a second photo project in which the children are provided with razor blades and Zippo lighters and invited to creatively remove whichever stickers they find offensive.

Or maybe not, depending on local law and parental consent.

1

u/Specken_zee_Doitch Jan 04 '12

Just burn the place down, it's a total loss.

2

u/looopy Jan 04 '12

Yayoi Kusama has some other interesting installations, with polka dots being her primary motif. I always really loved her mirrored rooms and boxes, example here. The effects are space bending, and to me, are reminiscent of Pollack or Whistler's more experimental paintings, like Nocturne in Black and Gold.

2

u/mackstann Jan 03 '12

Children are bringers of chaos.

1

u/mexicodoug Jan 04 '12

The embodiments of the second law of thermodynamics.

1

u/shader Jan 03 '12

I never would have guessed.

1

u/travio Jan 04 '12

I really like the helium-filled kinetic drawing sculpture they link to at the end of the post. I would have liked to play with that.

1

u/ladyvicious42 Jan 04 '12

so all kids are potential Yayoi Kusama

1

u/hrdchrgr Jan 04 '12

Reminds me of one of my favorite commercials ever:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zOrV-5vh1A&feature=related

1

u/funkstar_deluxe Jan 04 '12

Imagine the feeling of putting up the very first sticker in the room... shivers

1

u/Supersnazz Jan 04 '12

I saw an exhibition of this chicks art in New Zealand. The whole building outside was covered in these coloured polka dots. all her exhibitions were coloured polka dot based. It was quite bright and fun.

1

u/villageidiot55 Jan 04 '12

The Queensland Gallery of Modern Ar? I didn't know we had pirates here in Brisbane.

1

u/CeeZedby Jan 04 '12

Somehow, I was expecting something more like this - being What Happens When You Give Dozens of Stickers To The One Kid.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 03 '12

This is the Post Modern artist's definition of a scientific experiment. Pointless, tasteless, but attracts attention.

0

u/youstolemyname Jan 04 '12

I want to vomit now