The odds were stacked against Yayoi Kusama from the day she was born. Japan in 1929 was no place for a little girl with big dreams: stifling conservatism, wartime hardships and an oppressive family life defined by her father’s infidelities and her mother’s abusive behaviour were standing in her way.
By the age of 12, with her country at war, she was experiencing terrifying hallucinations in which she was consumed by objects around her. She found solace in art, drawing obsessively and daring to imagine that she might one day be a famous artist. But even her dreams seemed doomed. An Asian woman finding fame in the Euro-centric, male-dominated art world? It was laughable.