London's Serpentine Galleries unveiled a pumpkin sculpture by Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, who sent the artwork to London "with my love."
The yellow bronze sculpture is Kusama's tallest pumpkin sculpture to date, standing 19.5 feet tall, with an 18-foot-diameter, and festooned with black polka dots--another common Kusama motif.
Pumpkins are a common theme in the 95-year-old artist's work, first appearing in 1946. According to Serpentine:
"Kusama's relationship to the kabocha is rooted in her childhood - the artist's family cultivated the plant's seeds and their home was surrounded by fields of this squash. Pumpkins frequently appear as stand-ins for self-portraits. Kusama admires them for their everyday quality, hardiness and unique, frequently humorous forms. She has said 'Pumpkins have been a great comfort to me since my childhood. They speak to me of the joy of living. They are humble and amusing at the same time, and I have and always will celebrate them in my art.'"
In a 2015 interview, she said: "I love pumpkins because of their humorous form, warm feeling, and a human-like quality and form. My desire to create works of pumpkins still continues. I have enthusiasm as if I were still a child."
One of her pumpkins has been on display at the Benesse Art Site on Japan's Naoshima island since 1994.
The Serpentine South Gallery hosted Kusama's first retrospective exhibition in the UK back in 2000. One of the most important living Japanese artists, Kusama's work influenced those of her contemporaries, Andy Warhol and Claes Oldenburg.
The artwork stands next to Round Pond in Kensington Gardens, and is on view until November 3.
