Tourists and art lovers from all around are flooding to D.C. to try to see the new Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors exhibit at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Six of this eighty-eight-year-old artist's mirror rooms are being shown in the exhibit which is the most that have ever been shown together. In order to see this popular exhibit, one must get free timed passes in advanced.
The Hirshhorn releases a limited number of tickets online every Monday at noon. Tickets get claimed FAST and many have already been unable to claim tickets online for several weeks in a row. However, the museum releases around 500 tickets everyday in the morning and many come out early in the morning to get in line for a chance of getting a ticket. A single person can claim up to five tickets.
I went with my friends early in the morning this past Saturday to get in line and we were fortunate enough to get tickets for the exhibit. But, since this exhibit is so popular, you need to be ready to stand in line time after time again to see the mirror rooms. Along with the mirror rooms, there are other pieces of art on display done by Yayoi Kusama that you can look at. She has a very unique style and often does repetitive patterns in her artwork.
Before you enter every room, there is an employee who tells you a little about the room you are about to enter and the rules of being in there. You can only go in groups of 2-3 at a time and you only get about 20-30 seconds to be in every room. I wish we would get more time in every room, but it makes sense since there are so many people waiting for a chance to see the same exhibit pieces.
I do have to say that stepping into these rooms was incredible. I could immediately see why this exhibit was so popular and why so many people were trying to see it. The use of mirrors create an infinity effect and you feel like you are standing in an enormous, boundless room even though you already saw the size of the actual room before you entered it.
There were smaller sized "rooms" that were too small for people to actually go in. So, you just had to look into them instead. They were also really fascinating and made the small rooms look a lot larger than they actually were. You could hear everyone's comments of amazement after seeing these art pieces.
The last room of the exhibit was the interactive one. Before entering the room, you are handed a sheet of colorful circular stickers. The sticker colors consisted of blue, red, green, yellow, and orange. You are told to put the stickers anywhere that you want in the exhibit room. You then proceed to enter a rainbow room filled with color. A room that seems to have been all white, is now covered in colorful stickers that have all been placed by past exhibit visitors.
Overall, all my friends and I thought the exhibit was really surreal. You felt that you were stepping into another world. We were all very glad that we had made the trip because it was definitely worth seeing. I would totally recommend seeing the exhibit while it is still on display. The exhibit will be leaving D.C. after May 14th, so if you want to go, try to visit soon!
Check out the video about my trip to the exhibit here: Infinity Mirrors Video
