Eccentric Japanese Artist Peers Over Times Square From Vast Marriott LED Board

January 17, 2023 by Dave Haynes

This is an anamorphic illusion spot running on The Billboard That Ate Times Square – the giant LED that is the front face of the lower levels of the Marriott Marquis hotel in New York.

These pseudo 3D spot is for Louis Vuitton and features the work of the eccentric Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, most known for her use of polka dots in her art, and for her pumpkin-like helmets.

I am 100% out of my depth when it comes to the visual arts, or fashion, but the DOOH adtech firm Invian has a piece up about the install:

The massive 3D anamorphic display starts with a polka-dotted LV Damier trunk which opens up to reveal three of Kusama’s iconic pumpkins.

The yellow one, famously installed on the art island of Naoshima, is worn by the artist as a helmet as she’s seen peering over the ledge.

The animations then pivot to visuals of shimmering orbs from her Narcissus Garden artwork and other polka-dotted LV objects.

“Ten years after a first collaboration, Yayoi Kusama’s symbolic objects, hypnotic motifs, and imaginings of infinity take over the Maison’s own emblems, creating magical objects that transcend time and space.

First revealed on the Cruise 2023 runway, this year’s collaboration brings not only the artist’s signature dots to the Monogram canvas, but also explores a wide range of recurring themes,” writes Louis Vuitton of the joint project.

The spot is well done, particularly as she peers out over the plaza, but the evergreen qualifier with this sort of creative is that it looks best from a very specific angle, and might be distorted or slightly off from head-on.

There is also a life-sized animatronics version of Kusama painting polka dots on a sidewalk level window of the Louis Vuitton store on Fifth Avenue.

The same anamorphic spot is running on a display in Tokyo, and possibly elsewhere as Vuitton has a global campaign running.

 

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