I, Kusama, am the modern Alice in Wonderland”. Alice e Kusama, di riflesso per infiniti specchi

The female Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama organised a happening in Central Park, New York dedicated to Alice in Wonderland in 1968. The event press release at that time underlined the profound influence of the Carrollian character of Alice in the artist’s work and a sort of identification with her. This article examines the importance of many Carrollian conceptual elements and topics (mirror, non-sense, puns) in Kusama’s body of works, including a Lacanian interpretation of her creativity highlighting briefly also the new interest of artists and illustrators in the Sixties and Seventies for Carroll’s characters and Alice in Wonderland more specifically. The article ends with an overview of the Penguin edition of Alice in Wonderland with Kusama’s artwork of 2012: this adds her to a long list of artists who have been inspired by the Carrollian characters and stories. The article explores the themes, motifs and stylistic features used by Kusama to accompany and complement the text.