Yayoi Kusama Fireflies Infinity Mirror Room
4.7(51)google
ArtArt InstallationMust-See
Overview
Housed permanently inside the Phoenix Art Museum, this immersive contemporary art installation invites visitors into an ethereal, seemingly endless space surrounded by mirrors and hundreds of hanging, pulsating LED lights. The flashing colors create the romantic illusion of being suspended in a cosmic starfield or surrounded by glowing summer fireflies, offering a deeply contemplative, mesmerizing sensory experience.
Practical Info
Suggested Duration0.5-1 hour
Best TimeYear-round. It's highly recommended to go right at opening on a weekday morning (such as Tuesday to Thursday), when the queue is shortest—you may even get to queue up for repeated entries
Getting ThereLocated on the second floor of the Phoenix Art Museum. You can take the Valley Metro Rail and get off at the Central Ave/McDowell station to arrive directly; the museum has a large, completely free parking lot
Travel Tips
- The installation's full official title is "You Who Are Getting Obliterated in the Dancing Swarm of Fireflies," one of Yayoi Kusama's most outstanding and largest Infinity Mirror Room works
- As a permanent exhibit, it is perfectly integrated into the modern-art gallery of the Phoenix Art Museum
- Although you can visit for free with the museum's general admission ticket, because the interior space is extremely enclosed, only a handful of visitors can enter at a time
- The single experience time inside the Mirror Room is usually strictly limited to about 1 minute; it's advisable to set your phone camera's night mode before entering so you can quickly snap the dreamy reflections the moment the door opens
Reviews
Positive
- An ultimate dreaminess beyond words! Countless tiny LED bulbs continuously change color and flicker in the pitch-black mirrored space, and you truly feel the 'infinite obliteration' of Kusama's vision—so beautiful
- Although we queued about 20 minutes, the instant we walked in it felt completely worth it. A sky full of stars reflected on the pitch-black water surface, like falling into the galaxy—extremely photogenic
Heads up
- Because you can only go in for 1 minute at a time, it feels like just as you've adjusted your breathing and camera lens, time is up and the staff knock on the door to call you out—it would be nice if the experience were just a little longer