Yayoi Kusama is a Japanese contemporary artist famous for her sensational polka dots, immersive art installations and public stance on mental health. On October 20th, CDNIS hosted a Kusama exhibition featuring one of her pieces alongside our students’ artworks. At this showcase, the Meraki Club unveiled a Kusama-inspired art installation. With an image of Kusama herself at the centre, we surrounded the mural with depictions of what mental health and personal growth mean to us. Vibrant, unconventional colours as well as signature Kusama elements such as her pumpkins, tentacles and dots were the focus of the installation. In the week leading up to the exhibition, the Meraki Club invited students to visit the forum and slowly help build the puzzle that would reveal this large mural designed and painted by our club members.

All pieces were inspired by the prompt, “Art to heal and inspire the world”, and the installation symbolised the interactions between nature and the community, both of which play an integral role in nourishing mental health at the individual level. Recognising the importance of nature is a major step to healing, and was illustrated in the mural through portrayals of octopi, vines, and the sea.

Following the mural’s unveiling, we featured an interactive installation: the Meraki Club presented a magical and breathtaking 1000-paper-crane piece inspired by the Japanese legend that folding 1000 paper cranes will grant someone a wish. Students and staff alike stopped by the booth folded and decorated their own paper cranes, adding to their contributions to the mural.

This artistic endeavour united artists around the school, allowing everyone to ground their passion for the abstract and the unique in promoting mental health and inspiring healing through the arts. We hope everyone looks forward to what the Meraki Club has to offer in the near future!