Living in Toronto, there's always a crazy number of events happening at any given moment. Film festivals, conferences, musicals, tours, you name it. And when everyone is pulled into millions of directions, nobody can see EVERYTHING at once. It's just not possible.
But every once in awhile there is something that lights the city on fire, whether it's a concert, an event or art, and right now that very thing is Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO)'s exhibition of Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama and her remarkable and absolutely unmissable Infinity Mirrors.
Yayoi Kusama Infinity Mirror Room - Phalli's Field, 1965
While this is nowhere near the first North American exhibition of Kusama's works, it's the largest and most significant tour in over twenty years. and Toronto is the ONLY Canadian stop, so this is quite the destination for locals and visitors alike. With six full Infinity Rooms on display, and two floors dedicated to showcasing her work in roughly chronological order, it's a big maze of Kusama's work and influence.
Selfie time in Infinity Mirrored Room – The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away, 2013.
With only 20-30 seconds alloted for each mirror room, the exhibition IS ticketed by time, adding to the anticipation for the event. On the first day of public ticket availabilty, the ticketing system was so overloaded by users that it shut down because it couldn't handle the load. On the following days, people would find themselves amongst tens of thousands of people back in a digital 'queue' to get tickets. Weekends and evenings sold out in AGO member's pre-sale, leaving the rest of us to get what we could, whenever we could get it!
My partner and I tried for tickets and ended up buying them for mid April, but somehow, thanks to my luck, I gained access earlier through Dave Lackie and the Shiseido Essential Energy party that celebrated both Shiseido's latest release, and their support of the Yayoi Kusama Infinity Mirrors exhibition.
Yayoi Kusama, Life (Repetitive Vision), 1998
Yayoi Kusama - Dots Obsession - Love Transformed into Dots
As a presenting member of the Infinity Mirrors exhibition, Shiseido also launched a new product at a special event earlier this month and invited beauty bloggers, influencers, and fans alike to get a sneak peek at their new line & the exhibition. And your girl here was the FIRST one in my timeslot to get in, dont'cha know? While there were other fellow bloggers around, for all my Infinity Mirror times I was joined by the lovely Samantha Tyler of Chic Canadian (whom you'll see in some photos here) and we went to TOWN in the rooms, embracing infinity and taking some selfies along the way.
While I was loosely aware of what the Infinity Mirrors were before they came to Toronto, I was really interested in Kusama's stories and thoughts behind all of her pieces. Her art can be hyper-localized, these are small boxes or pieces that reflect a time and a place, but at the same time her ideas and beliefs are global and transcend time and place. I felt very cozy in some of her rooms and with some of her art, but also like a small speck in the universe at the same time.
It's very comforting to experience both ends of this spectrum and I very much look forward to returning in a more contemplative way next month. In addition to her Infinity Mirrors and sculpture works, there are many video installations, photos and other pieces that tell part of the story of this fascinating woman and her celebrated career.
Shiseido Essential Energy Moisturizing Cream
Shiseido Canada Essential Energy Launch
After we had spent our time with infinity, we returned to the party o learn about the latest products in Shiseido's skincare arsenal: the creamy and luxurious Shiseido Essential Energy line which includes the Moisturizing Cream, Moisturizing Gel Cream and Day Cream with SPF 20.
The products boast of a lightweight, fresh scent that offer a whiff of rose and jasmine, while also offering ingredients that help protect skin from damage while also counteracting the appearance of dryness, dullness and fine lines. I absolutely love the feel and weight of the moisturizer and am looking forward to seeing what results I'll get after longer wear. (Any skincare blogger knows you need to test things longer than a week or so to know what's-a-going-on!) But with my previous experience with Shiseido, it's generally high quality and HIGHLY recommended for my combination, sensitive skin.
As one final thank you, on our way out we also received the highly coveted Yayoi Kusama special edition Shiseido cosmetic bag, with a selection of deluxe product samples, including my favourite red lipstick, Ruby Copper!
Yayoi Kusama's Infinity Mirrors runs at the Art Gallery of Ontario from now until May 27, 2018. While tickets can be hard to come by, I know the rush line is also a great way to test your chances too, and the next block of tickets is available March 27th!
You can learn more about Shiseido's Essential Energy line on their website and if you're interested, I wrote another review of Shiseido's Synchro Skin Foundation which you can see here.
And last but not least, PLEASE be sure to follow the lovely Dave Lackie on Instagram, Twitter and visit his website & subscribe to his newsletter for more opportunities to win!
