“Narcissus Garden” is one of Yayoi Kusama’s most contemplative pieces, comprised of 1,500 stainless steel orbs, left to float on a pond. The piece has been shown at Philip Johnson’s Glass House in Connecticut in 2016, and England’s Chatsworth House in 2009, both of which invited the viewer to contemplate the spheres’ manicured yet natural garden surroundings. Now however, in collaboration with MoMA PS1, the work is coming to the industrial environment of a former garage in Fort Tilden, in the Rockaways. “It will look very, very different than before,” curator Klaus Biesenbach told The New York Times.
From July 1st until September 3rd, you’ll be able to see the piece as part of MoMA PS1’s Rockaway!, a festival set up to benefit the Rockaways after Hurricane Sandy devastated the area. Not that the danger has passed — only last month, the city closed a section of the beach because of erosion. Good for the beach, less great for the hordes who descend every weekend from the city.
Previous works at the festival have included Patti Smith’s “Resilience of the Dreamer,” and a neon drenched abandoned house by Katharina Grosse (who spoke to i-D about the project in 2016). One thing it won’t help with, presumably, are the summer crowds — Kusama’s “Infinity Rooms” are an enduringly popular draw at museums across the world.