Yayoi Kusama’s Obliteration Room:
Community Building in Action

A completely painted white room with four chairs, a table, a visible couch and kitchen area. The hanging ceiling lamp above the table is also fully painted white as is the vase and bouquet of flowers on the table.
A painted white room covered sparingly with circular rainbow stickers. The room has four chairs, a table, a visible couch and kitchen area. The hanging ceiling lamp is also not fully covered with stickers.
A painted white room almost entirely covered with rainbow stickers. The room has four chairs, a table, a visible couch and kitchen area. The hanging ceiling lamp is also fully covered with stickers.

Yayoi Kusama, The Obliteration Room at the David Zwirner Gallery

Give Me Love Exhibition

May 9—June 13, 2015

Enter

Alexis Shulman
Master's Thesis
American University
Art History

I would like to express my deepest appreciation to everyone who helped me with this project.

I would like to thank Dr. Ying-chen Peng, my first reader, for her feedback and generosity. I would also like to thank Dr. Nika Elder for working incredibly hard to help make sure that my arguments made sense. Thank you also to Dr. Juliet Bellow for her guidance throughout my years of both graduate and undergraduate school. I’m also extremely grateful to Dr. Andrew Wasserman for his extended support and tireless hours spent editing and critiquing my argument and for encouraging me to push my analysis further.

I would also like to thank Ms. Jacqueline Tunny for helping me find the information on The Obliteration Room directly through the QAGOMA and their commission process.

Thank you to my cohort peers who were always there to help fixed my website and writing or just to chat over dinner. I love and appreciate all of you.

Lastly, thank you to my family and my friends.

To my brother, mom, dad, step-father, and step-mother for their unwavering support during this process. I would not have been able to complete this without you all.

Shulman, Alexis. “Audience Participation in Yayoi Kusama’s Obliteration Room.” MA Thesis, American University, 2024.

Master’s Capstone Project submitted to the Faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences of American University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master’s of Arts in Art History.

Chair: Dr. Ying-Chen Peng

 Reader: Dr. Nika Elder

Reader: Dr. Andrew Wasserman

December 15, 2024

American University, Washington DC.

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