The Yayoi Kusama exhibit “Infinity Mirrors” at the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden http://hirshhorn.si.edu/kusama/ is the hottest show in Washington this year and is almost impossible to get into. Its six mirrored rooms are fantastical and fascinating, but you have to spend about 30-45 minutes in line waiting to get into each one, after which you are allowed exactly 20 SECONDS to view it along with two other people. The museum staff have stopwatches and throw you out when your time is up. Needless to say, not a good situation for picture taking, but we did what we could under the difficult circumstances.

This was the final room of the exhibit, titled “The Obliteration Room,” in which visitors are provided colorful dot stickers that are to be used to eliminate the traces of the original white room through the act of “communal obliteration.” Unfortunately, once you enter this room, you can’t return to the mirror rooms, so we couldn’t experience the final one (which we had tried to get into once and then on a second try gave up due to what looked like yet another 45 minute wait). If I end up returning on a members only evening, that will be the first place I go. If not, then what we saw was fantastic, and I’m glad we were able to do it and grateful we actually got a few usable pictures!

‘The Obliteration Room,’ posted earlier: