This Phoenix Art Museum Installation Will Stop You Cold

Inside the Phoenix Art Museum’s Contemporary Art Wing, there is a 25-foot square room that will make you feel like you are floating in deep space. Yayoi Kusama’s ‘You Who Are Getting Obliterated in the Dancing Swarm of Fireflies’ is a permanent installation, which means you can walk in on any Tuesday morning when the rest of the world is somewhere else. It takes about 60 seconds to understand why people seek this room out, and considerably longer to stop thinking about it.

What You Are Actually Looking At

The room is lined floor to ceiling with mirrors. The floor is polished black granite. The ceiling is black plexiglass. Suspended throughout are 250 LED lights programmed to cycle through shifting colors, each one reflected infinitely in every direction around you. The effect is not a gimmick. Your brain genuinely cannot locate the edges of the space. Time gets slippery. It is the kind of experience that is difficult to describe accurately and impossible to fully photograph, which is part of what makes it worth seeing in person.

Who Made It and Why It Matters

Yayoi Kusama is 89 years old and has been making art for more than seven decades. She arrived in New York in the 1960s at the center of the avant-garde movement, staged provocative public happenings, and was considered one of the most daring artists of her era. After moving back to Japan in 1973 for health reasons, she voluntarily checked into a psychiatric facility and has lived there ever since, continuing to work. She was largely overlooked for years before international recognition caught up with her in the early 1990s. In 2008, a piece sold for $5.1 million, a record at the time for a living female artist. The Firefly room is not a retrospective or a traveling show. It is a permanent work, and Phoenix has it.

When to Go and What to Expect

Phoenix Art Museum is open Tuesday through Sunday. Weekday mornings are the quietest window to visit, particularly Tuesday through Thursday. The museum is air-conditioned throughout, which makes it an especially practical choice from May through October when outdoor options in Phoenix carry a real cost in comfort. Plan on one to two hours for the full museum visit, or a focused 45-minute trip if the Kusama room is your main reason for coming. Entry to the installation is included with general museum admission. No timed tickets are required for the Firefly room, though brief waits are possible on weekends and during school holiday periods. A weekday morning visit typically means walking straight in.

Getting There and Getting Around

The museum sits just off North Central Avenue in downtown Phoenix. Paid parking is available in the museum lot and along surrounding streets. The Contemporary Art Wing, where the Kusama installation is located, is accessible from the main entrance. The museum is largely navigable on flat, paved floors, though some gallery areas involve stairs between levels. If mobility is a consideration, confirm elevator access with the museum when you arrive. Staff are generally helpful with routing.

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