CLEVELAND -- You may not think of the sciences when you think of major artwork, but the new Infinity Mirrors exhibit at the Cleveland Museum of Art may change that.
It is at the Cleveland Museum of Art through September 30, and tickets are already hard to come by.
Keep in mind, artist Yayoi Kusama (now 89 years old) has been hot on the international art scene for more than 60 years.
She draws, paints, sews, sculpts and assembles incredible contemporary pieces that are currently traveling the country in her Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors exhibition which features 60 of her works including seven infinity mirror rooms.
It is at the Cleveland Museum of Art through September 30, and already tickets are hard to come by.
Usually the exhibit travels with six rooms, but Cleveland was able to show a seventh that uses natural light - provided in the CMA's wondrous atrium.
The illusion of infinity is provided by facing mirrors that reflect light back and forth in the enclosed space. While the modular cubes (the rooms) are only 13 to 15 feet, once inside the experience is vast.
LED lighting is used to create a variety of infinite spaces, from bold multi-color strobes in her Love Forever room to soft, floating lanterns in her Aftermath of Obliteration of Eternity room, each of the rooms are unique and convey a different feeling.
Museum visitors are only allowed 20 to 30 seconds in each room, meaning you have be quick to take it all in. Photos and video are allowed with only one exception, the All the Eternal Love I have for the Pumpkins room that features an unending, mod mix of black-dotting-orange glowing acrylic pumpkin sculptures. No cameras or phones are allowed, and visitors are escorted into the room because at an earlier stop on the exhibit's tour a visitor dropped a phone and broke one of the pumpkins.
"I am just amazed that there has been so much excitement and popularity, and it really excites me when there's an artist who can speak to so many generations and age groups," says Mika Yoshitake, Curator for the traveling exhibit. "There's this kind of shared unity with a lot of her artwork and so I'm very excited to see that when the work touches so many people."
"I anticipate that the Kusama exhibition will help us welcome visitors back, welcome first time visitors and really show people how exciting and fun and accessible contemporary art can be," said Emily Liebert, Associate Curator of Contemporary Art at the Cleveland Museum of Art.
There is a lot of science that goes into this particular form of art. The infinity mirror effect is also known as a Torricelli Trumpet, the paradox of infinite area within a finite space, first noted by Evangelista Torricelli in 1643 (he was the inventor of the mercury barometer too).
The opposing mirrored walls, ceiling and floors are bouncing light all around. Add in objects to the space and you suddenly feel like you are floating freely with a view that stretches on forever rather than contained.
Liebert adds, "I think there are many artists really interested in what science can offer their lines of inquiry. I think science can open new areas of inquiry and set up new questions, and I think art can be a field that explores those questions."
Tickets will be sold weekly for specific times and dates. While the Cleveland Museum of Art is free for all visitors, the special exhibition costs $30 for adults, $15 for 6-17 year olds and children under 5 are free (limit to with paying adult).