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Everything that is not yellow in the gallery is black.

This exhibition (assembled with aid from members of the Rice and Houston communities) consists of nothing but yellow light, yellow paint, giant yellow balloons and black polka dots of varying sizes.

If this exhibition reminds you of some sort of hallucination, there is a good reason for that: Kusama strengthened her career as an artist through art therapy.

Kusama's traumatic childhood in Japan -- she survived both the Depression and World War II -- is often cited as a cause of her off-again, on-again mental illness, which manifested itself in hallucinations that later became the basis for her art.

In the 1960s, the critically-acclaimed and avant-garde Kusama participated in the New York art scene in both "happenings" and brash performance art, and her reputation placed her close to the likes of Andy Warhol. This prominence lasted until her depression took over.

Yayoi eventually sought help for the depression that has been blamed on her family's lack of support for her artistic endeavors.

Kusama eventually placed herself in a mental hopsital in Tokyo known for using art therapy to treat neuroses. There she found her beginnings in wildly patterned works such as "Dots Obsession."

Repeating patterns, such as the black dots in "Dots Obsession," are the hallmark of her work.

However, her works also include various net and dot paintings, sculpture and performance work. She has also experimented outside of the visual arts genre. She is the composer of 13 pieces of music and the author of several novels.

Kusama created "Dots Obsession" itself specifically for Rice Art Gallery although the first incarnation of the work was exhibited at the Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh earlier this year.

Some of the black dots are as large as dinner plates, some are about the size of a salad plate, and yet others look to be about as big as the average human hand. And they're everywhere: they seem to crawl underfoot.

In fact, because the floor is part of the artwork, visitors are required to don sanitary-seeming foot covers (provided in a big box by the exhibit entrance).

The dots stick to the ceiling and crawl up the walls like huge spiders. The presence of so many dots creates a sense of movement, as if they are living, eerily sentient creatures.

This virtual motion is hallucinogenic in itself, and the presence of so many dots serves as a manifestation of repetitive and obsessive themes.

Lest you are afraid that the exhibit consists solely of black dots and yellow paint, rest assured: The dots also cover four specially-constructed giant vinyl balloons -- yellow ones, of course -- the largest of which measures 10 feet tall by 30 feet long.

The curvaceous,pear-shaped balloons are like giant, sunny pieces of fruit -- pieces of fruit blemished by the invasion of oversized dots. Visitors are not supposed to touch the balloons, tempting though it may be.

This temptation is one of the things that makes "Dots Obsession" so strangely compelling.

After wandering amidst the balloons and innumerable dots, you leave the circus funhouse yellowness of "Dots Obsession" and re-enter a purple-tinged world.

Amazing, the effect of so much yellow light upon the vision.

Last Thursday's exhibition preview reception, a unique sort of show opening, featured "Dots Obsession" snow cones and polka-dot balloons. Other events will follow.

On Oct. 5, the senior curator at Houston's Contemporary Arts Museum, Dana Friis-Hansen, will deliver a slideshow and talk entitled "Beyond the Polka Dot," at 2 p.m. in Sewall Hall, Room 309. This will be followed by a reception.

And on Oct. 16, Rice Art Gallery Assistant Curator Stephanie Smith will deliver a gallery talk at 12:15 p.m., the location to be announced.

Gallery hours are: Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursday 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.

For more information about "Dots Obsession," which runs until Nov. 2, contact Gallery Manager Jaye Anderton at (713) 737-5740 or direct e-mail to the following address: jaye@rice.edu.

This item appeared in the Arts & Entertainment section of the September 26, 1997 issue.