Ashley Explores The Arts

Location:

If I could hypothetically go on a trip to any art museum in the world to see a specific artists or exhibit, I would love to go to London and see the Tate museums. In London they actually have four different Tate museums, just based on their location. These locations are the Tate Modern, the Tate Britain, the Tate Liverpool, and the Tate St. Ives. I would love to see all four, but if I could take this art trip then I would specifically go to the Tate Modern. It is open on Sunday’s-Thursday’s from 10 am to 6 pm. On Friday’s and Saturday’s, it is open from 10 am to 10 pm (they are open for the working-class people, I approve). I would like to actually see two artists exhibitions that are displayed. I want to see Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirror Room, which is on display in the spring of 2021, I am assuming after they reopen on May 17^th. I also would like to see Kara Walker’s Hyundai Commission, on display from October 2021-January 2022 and maybe another one of her permanent artworks, I am not sure if it is permanent or not. The other exhibit of Walkers would be, Grub for Shakes: A Concession to the Negro Populace. Kara Walker’s exhibition is just a bonus in seeing when at the Tate Modern.

About the Art:

I chose this specific museum to go to because I really wanted to see one of Yayoi Kusama’s exhibitions. When I saw that they had an upcoming exhibition of one of her mirror rooms, I was even more excited to travel there. I had tried to plan a trip to Japan and see more of her works there, but I do not speak Japanese and it was making it difficult to understand when her artworks were at certain museums.

The exhibition of Yayoi Kusama’s that I really want to see is called, Infinity Mirrored Room – Filled with the Brilliance of Life. She created this in 2012 for her retrospective at the Tate Modern. It is also one of her largest installations she has ever made. The reason she made these mirrored rooms is because she wanted to give a “hallucinatory scene” but creating everything by hand was too hard, so she used mirrors to create the fields she wanted. This exhibition room is of course a room with mirrors on all sides, so when a person steps in, they are surrounded by endless space. In this particular mirrored space, there are purple string lights that seem to dangle down and then reflect into infinity. It is like stepping into a world where purple stars surround you.

About the Artist:

Yayoi Kusama is a contemporary artist and is still alive at the age of 92! She was a part of the Pop Art Movement which started in the 1950’s and ended roughly in the 1960’s. Pop Art is actually a small section of the umbrella term Modernism; and Pop Art began in England and New York. There were a lot of Japanese artists at the time, hence why Yayoi Kusama is a huge part of Pop Art, but because of the time, the American government imprisoned any Japanese Americans. This art movement also had a lot to do with popular culture and appropriation. Its biggest influences being advertising and consumerism. The artwork was meant to represent banal and ephemeral items. Banal meaning throw-away items or items easily disposed. While ephemeral means short lived or in the moment items.

Yayoi Kusama was born in Japan into a wealthy family, but still struggled because of the times there was hatred and racism towards Japanese people, along with that, she was female. Kusama actually had issues, as did most females, with male artists attempting to copy their work and then taking credit for being the first person to create it. This is why we need to support living and non-living female artists. In the 60’s, after Kusama moved to the United States, she began creating textured and unusual works. Most of her works were actually phallic like and covered in polka dots. Polka dots are a huge part of Kusama’s life, she tried to incorporate them in almost all of her artworks. As mentioned, a lot of her artworks are the mirror rooms because they help create the field perspective that would have taken her forever to create by hand. I would be so excited to actually experience one of her mirrored rooms because they look so magical and feel like they would be surreal.

Budget and Extra Stops:

In total, I believe this trip would cost roughly around $3,370. I first plan to take the trip in possibly August, from the 1^st-5^th because I would have to stay longer than just a night in London. My plane ticket with British Airways would cost about $1,803. This would be a round trip, leaving on July 31^st and having only one stop. The flight would be about 19 hours I believe, which makes sense for the pricing. Before I even did that, I would need to acquire a passport and that would cost me about $175. Why are they so expensive? I have no idea, why is anything so expensive? After getting my passport my next thing would be to buy the flight ticket and then book my hotel. I found one that is only a few blocks away from the Tate Modern and that is the Novotel London Blackfriars. A stay from August 1^st-5^th would cost me about $799.39, which actually is not that bad because it also includes breakfast. Therefore, I would not have to budget for breakfast because I can just use my resources. There is a good question if I would even eat breakfast though, because of the time zone differences, my body would be all out of whack. Since my body would be all out of whack, I would need something to keep me caffeinated and awake, so I would budget for $50 on coffee. Seems like a lot, but I do enjoy my coffee, especially from a different country, could be exciting. For food I might budget around $250 for snacks and actual meals because I am not sure how much everything costs in locations, but I just want to make sure I have enough to cover me. The next thing I would need to budget for would be the most important part of the trip and that would be the museum itself. The admission price is free, but because of COVID, they have timed exhibitions admissions. You have to buy a ticket for that, and I believe it would cost about $6.97, but to see a certain exhibition, such as Yayoi Kusama’s mirrored room, another ticket for that would cost between $18.13 and $30.68. Each exhibition is different and ticket prices are also determined by the age of the person, like most things. At the museum they also have concessions and tickets for those would cost between $13.94 and $27.89.

Of course, while at the museum they will have a gift shop and I have to have something for memory, so for shopping in general I would budget roughly $120. That is not just for the gift shop, but other shops I see while in London. It is also budgeted for one of my extra stops I plan to visit. To be able to get from my hotel to the museum or from my hotel to my other stops, I would be using public transportation such as the buses. I know they have fares, so I would budget around $20 for bus fare. I think I could even walk to the museum because the distance is not far, but I would not want to get lost and look all confused. Now, while I am in London, even though the art museum is the main reason I would be going, I would also stop at two different places as well. I would like to visit The Natural History Museum and the Kew Gardens. The Natural History Museum actually isn’t too far from my hotel. So, I believe I would take a bus for that and I have the bus fare calculated in. Also, the Natural History Museum is actually free, which is very nice. However, I noticed at their gift shop they have stuffed dinosaurs, so I will of course have to buy one of those. That is budgeted in with the $120 for gift shops and just shopping around. For the Kew Gardens, they are a bit further from my hotel, it says it is recommended to take the Subway and the costs for that is roughly $5, which is also calculated in with my bus fare. It would then cost me roughly $20.91 to be admitted to the gardens. I want to go to these places because I absolutely love historical museums and botanical gardens. Overall, that is the budget for myself, I assume that would also be the same for somebody else trying to go on this trip. They could plan differently if they already have a passport and if they do not need as much caffeine as me. In total, for a normal person, this trip might just cost $3,000, which actually is not all that bad.