3. 'Girl' Kusama and the sexual identity
The Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama was also a pioneer in these respects, in the 'multi-medial', genre-transcending character of her performances and the special significance of the audience, the contribution it made to the 'creation' of a work of art, we could argue. In 1967 Kusama exhibited in the Hague International Gallery Orez her Polka Dot Love Room (1967), an environment of display mannequins with dots in a fluorescent paint. During the opening the 'disorder' was great, according to The Hague Post: bright light flashes from a light machine by artist Livinus van de Bundt blinded the visitors and electronic music that filled the back room of the gallery with a 'tidal wave of decibels'. Dressed in a red jumpsuit painted and stained Kusama display mannequins with dots - and finally themselves and the bushes in the garden behind the gallery. Later that evening, the event was continued in a Delft jazz club, where Kusama Jan Schoonhoven and sculptor Gust Romijn, both naked after their socks, painted with 'polka dots', under the watchful eye of a large audience.
Two weeks later Kusama repeated her performance at the opening of the Balans art fair in the Stedelijk Museum in Schiedam, also with the contribution of a - naked - Jan Schoonhoven. The 'incident' led to questions in the city council and heated discussions about this '(...) long-haired, tight-fitting trousers and black-haired animal skin' that painted naked men 'to the rhythm of rock-hard beat music'. And especially this last quote from the newspaper Het Vrije Volk of 1967 is significant. In a period when art was dominated by men, Kusama was a striking appearance, precisely because of the sexual connotations of many of her performances. A young, self-confident female artist who explained her male colleagues to 'painting canvas', and thus considered 'her' artwork: identity, sexual identity, was no longer denied or avoided but confirmed and celebrated. 'Girl' Kusama - The Free People paraphrasing - was an artist who would influence the emancipation of female artists. Kusama 'opened eyes and pointed the way', according to artist Phil Bloom, who attended Kusama's performance at Galerie Orez. Henk Peeters became an active member of the NVHS (the Dutch Society for Sexual Reform) and helped to legalize abortion. Bloom herself appeared in October 1967 as the first female nude on Dutch television, in the program Hoepla! by Wim T. Schippers and Willem de Ridder. The impact of Kusama was great, says Bloom: 'Something like that simply did not exist in your own head. That total freedom. That openness. Everything was possible, everything was possible.
Two weeks later Kusama repeated her performance at the opening of the Balans art fair in the Stedelijk Museum in Schiedam, also with the contribution of a - naked - Jan Schoonhoven. The 'incident' led to questions in the city council and heated discussions about this '(...) long-haired, tight-fitting trousers and black-haired animal skin' that painted naked men 'to the rhythm of rock-hard beat music'. And especially this last quote from the newspaper Het Vrije Volk of 1967 is significant. In a period when art was dominated by men, Kusama was a striking appearance, precisely because of the sexual connotations of many of her performances. A young, self-confident female artist who explained her male colleagues to 'painting canvas', and thus considered 'her' artwork: identity, sexual identity, was no longer denied or avoided but confirmed and celebrated. 'Girl' Kusama - The Free People paraphrasing - was an artist who would influence the emancipation of female artists. Kusama 'opened eyes and pointed the way', according to artist Phil Bloom, who attended Kusama's performance at Galerie Orez. Henk Peeters became an active member of the NVHS (the Dutch Society for Sexual Reform) and helped to legalize abortion. Bloom herself appeared in October 1967 as the first female nude on Dutch television, in the program Hoepla! by Wim T. Schippers and Willem de Ridder. The impact of Kusama was great, says Bloom: 'Something like that simply did not exist in your own head. That total freedom. That openness. Everything was possible, everything was possible.
Retrospect: ZERO and the freedom of spirit
Looking back in 1970, Peeters connected the decisiveness of ZERO with the limited possibilities that the artists had at the time: 'You have to imagine, at that time you could not go a long way, you really could not do anything at all. Because of this, it comes that everything focused on a kind of utopian ideas, which, of course, became crazier, so that there was sometimes no chance of doing anything. "It is this freedom of mind that characterized ZERO: the practical execution at the time not always easy, but also explains why the ideas are still viable and influential today.