Boulevard goes dotty for Japan's art superstar

What on earth will the possums make of it? Wrapping a tree-lined boulevard with the call sign of Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama is certainly a dotty idea. Along Melbourne's St Kilda Road outside the National Gallery of Victoria, more than 60 trees are being covered in material featuring pink and white dots, an installation titled Ascension of Polka Dots on the Trees. It's art, and at the same time an unmissable piece of marketing ahead of Kusama's blockbuster exhibition at NGV International, opening in December. The show will be one of the most comprehensive retrospectives of her work presented anywhere in the world, and the biggest ever in Australia. It will feature more than 200 artworks including the unveiling of her most recent infinity mirror room, a style of installation Kusama has been known for since the 1960s. But what do the dots actually mean? For the artist, they represent a path to infinity, but more prosaic interpretations could include a high-vis warning about the plane trees that give Melburnians the sniffles. The artwork was first installed in Japan in 2002 at the Kirishima Open Air Museum, in a version with red and white fabric covered trees. While Ascension of Polka Dots on the Trees is free, along with other works including a five-metre high bronze pumpkin sculpture in the NGV foyer, gallery visitors will need to buy tickets to see the main exhibition. For anyone fond of the animated bird artworks already installed along St Kilda Rd, Julian Opie's Australian Birds will remain in place, the NGV has confirmed. And now they'll really have something to look at. Yayoi Kusama will be on display from December 15 to April 21 at NGV International, St Kilda Road, Melbourne.