The whimsical artist behind the wildly popular infinity mirrors exhibit, Yayoi Kusama, has designed a balloon for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Her balloon, “Love Flies Up To The Sky,” is a round character with tentacles featuring 300 of her signature hand-painted dots, according to macys.com.
On Thanksgiving Day, it will soar as high as a three-story building at 34 feet tall and will stretch the length of five bicycles or 30 feet. It will be 36 feet wide (the width of seven taxi cabs) and will require 40 handlers to usher it through the city.
Kusama’s design was developed from face motifs that appear in her “My Eternal Soul” series, which she began painting in 2009.
The balloon joins new entries like Astronaut Snoopy, Smokey Bear, and SpongeBob SquarePants & Gary that will also be in the parade this year.
Kusama’s balloon isn’t the only thing fans can expect from her this year in New York City — her work will be at David Zwirner Gallery (537 W. 20th St.) from Nov. 9 to Dec. 14 in an exhibit called “Every Day I Pray For Love.” The immersive installation will have another infinity mirror room called “Dancing Lights That Flew Up to the Universe, 2019,” and her “My Eternal Soul” paintings.
Next year, she will take over the New York Botanical Garden in an “unprecedented landmark” presentation, from May to November, with iconic mirrored environments, larger-than-life polka-dotted flowers and pumpkins, paintings and her first-ever participatory greenhouse installation across the seasons.
In 2017, her “New York: Festival of Life” at David Zwirner Gallery attracted thousands who lined up around the block to get into the free exhibit.
