After seeing so many beautiful pictures on Instagram, and watching a few friends make the trip to LA, I finally got around to seeing Yayoi Kusama’s “Infinity Mirrors” traveling exhibit. According to The Broad’s website, The Broad is the only museum in California that will host the the exhibition.

Advanced tickets to the exhibit sold out back in November, so now the only way to see the Infinity Mirror exhibits is to show up the day-of for stand-by. The tickets to the exhibit are given in 15-minute intervals to about 30 people. There are a limited number of tickets available each day, given out on a first-come, first-served basis. So it’s better to get there early.

I left Oceanside a little behind schedule after stopping for coffee (duh) and gas. I hopped on the I-5 around 6:45am and the ride was pretty smooth until I got to the I-105. Traffic was backed up pretty much the rest of the way there.

Once I was finally able to exit, I found The Broad’s parking structure on 2nd street between Hope and Grand. I’m not sure the hourly rate, but with parking validation, it cost $12.50.

I arrived at The Broad about two hours before the doors opened, and the line to the ticket window was already halfway down the block. They started selling tickets about an hour before the doors opened. I was able to get into the 12 o’clock block, which gave me an hour to walk over to Starbucks across the street.

After enjoying another cup of coffee and a small snack, I returned to The Broad and walked into the first infinity room.

Because of the size of the rooms, only 1-3 people were allowed in any room at a given time. And because of the size of the crowds, the entrants were only given 30-seconds in the room before the next couple people stepped in.

In addition to the Infinity Rooms, some of Kusuma’s paintings and sculptures are also on display. I was free to take my time and stroll through her installations between the six small rooms.

The photos I was able to take do not do the installations justice, and 30 seconds was not nearly enough time. The displays obviously looked like they went on forever, and was beautifully done. I didn’t want to leave any of them.

The first room brought to mind the universe. Imagining every LED as another star or galaxy in the universe brought a grin to my face, thinking of how creative God is, painting our night skies to look like this tiny little room. And it goes on forever and ever! Besides, I love astronomy and star-gazing.

“You are Holy, Great and Mighty.
The moon and the stars declare who You are.”
– “Cannons” by Phil Wickham 

The second room was just flat-out cute. The pink room was full of pink, polka dotted beach ball-like objects. The largest of the Infinity Rooms, this installation was actually inside a big, pink polka dot ball. It’s fun, it’s bubbly, and made me want to bop around while chewing on some Bubble Yum and listening to Meghan Trainor or Taylor Swift.

Walking into the next section of Kusama’s displays made me feel a little… well, I thought “eek”. These cotton, stuffed tubes rising out of the ground are meant to be phallic. To be honest, I wouldn’t have even known that if I didn’t read a plaque next to the room. I thought they were kind of cute, stuffed… sea cucumbers… #FacePalm

The fourth room was inspired by Toro nagashi. It reminded me of the Rise paper lantern festivals, which is also on my bucket list. There was something magical about this room, being surrounded by floating, soft, yellow glowing lamps. It invoked thoughts of prayers and wishes floating up to the heavens, or spirits floating free. Of course, these installations were stationary but looking around the room or turning around made the lights come to life, as they dimmed and brightened randomly.

I did say there were six rooms, but I’ve only posted pictures of four. Cameras were forbidden in one of the rooms (the one with the polka-dot pumpkins. Pumpkin spiced everything).

The final room was a white living room/dining room that looked like was just a polka-dotted explosion. This installation encouraged guests to contribute to it, placing their own dots around the room (which were provided by staff). You were allowed to sit on the furniture as long as you didn’t kick your feet up.

In all, it took me an hour to go through the Kusama exhibits. I did walk through the rest of The Broad’s galleries, getting to check out some art I didn’t realize I’ve seen on the internet, but not in person.

I knew that if I ended up with a few hours before my standby time, or if I had company and an extra day off to make today a day in LA, I would have taken an Uber or Dart bus to Little Tokyo for some ramen. But that wasn’t in the cards today. I ended up n Garden Grove to have a Sushi Burger I saw in an Insider Food video on Facebook. Hehe…

So if you ask, yes, I think the early morning drive to Los Angeles and the standing in line was totally worth going to the exhibition. Not only do they make for beautiful pictures, but the rooms (even the “phallic” one) were a fun experience to be able to be immersed into art and invoked a lot of dreamy, nostalgic feels.