( Wired ) -- Walking into one of Yayoi Kusama 's infinity rooms is like walking into a completely different universe . The door shuts behind you , and suddenly you find yourself surrounded by what appears to be a galaxy of shimmering LEDs . The scene is beautiful , in a surreal , space-age fairy tale sort of way . But it 's also a little jarring in its intimacy ; it 's almost as though you 've been instantly transported from a whitewashed gallery into Kusama 's buzzing , obsessive mind . It 's a strange place to inhabit , if only because you get the sense that what goes on inside Kusama 's mind is very different than what 's happening inside , say , your neighbor 's , or your colleague 's . The Japanese artist has lived in a Japanese mental institution since the 1970s , when she checked herself in after a particularly stressful stint in New York City . But Kusama 's struggle with obsessive compulsive disorder and other mental anguishes is not a shameful secret . In fact , it 's the opposite . Read more : Wildly detailed drawings that combine math and butterflies . Kusama 's mental woes fuel her work , with her obsession and compulsion manifested in her exaggerated use of shapes , colors and mirrored rooms . For as long as Kusama has been an artist ( she 's currently in her mid-80s ) , she 's been obsessed with polka-dots . A result of hallucinations she 's had since childhood , the shapes are plastered across her paintings , on her clothes , and incorporated into her trippy infinity rooms . It 's not hyperbole to say they are everywhere . Including her newly opened show at the David Zwirner Gallery in New York City . In `` I Who Have Arrived in Heaven '' , Kusama continues the motif with 27 new paintings and two infinity rooms , all covered in dots of varying shapes and sizes . The colorful large-scale paintings covered in eyes and dots are beautiful works in their own right , but the real reason most people will trek to the Chelsea gallery and wait in the 4-hour line is to see Kusama 's brilliant mirrored infinity rooms . GIZMODO - Infinity Rooms from Gizmodo on Vimeo . Kusama has been making these magical boxes since the 1960s , when she first lined a small room with mirrors and filled it with polka-dotted phallic shapes , creating what I like to imagine a brothel in the Dr. Seuss universe might look like . Her newest room , `` The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away , '' is more along the lines of her beloved `` Fireflies on the Water , '' a mirrored infinity room that showcased hundreds of warm-hued LEDs at the Whitney last year . Read more : Mind-blowing portraits made of test tubes and pushpins . In her new room , Kusama has again suspended multi-colored LEDs from the ceiling at varying lengths that reflect off of the mirrored walls and shallow pool on the floor in a strobe light pattern that repeats itself every 45 seconds . Just down the street at the gallery 's connected space is another infinity room , `` Love Is Calling , which this time is filled with brightly colored inflatable sculptures covered in polka dots that shoot up from the floor and hang from the ceiling like technicolor tentacles . The artist says the kaleidoscopic rooms are her attempt to investigate life , death and infinity , and if you 're prone to existential pondering , it 's easy to see that connection . Contemplating the infinite does have a way of drudging up those `` what 's it all mean ? '' feelings . But for most people , being inside Kusama 's glimmering universe is simply a brief reprieve from a dulled world they left on the other side of the door . For a moment , you can almost forget about the line waiting outside , the 360 degrees of mirrors and ultimately , yourself . But just for a momentâ€ ” because there 's no way you 're leaving without taking a selfie . I Who Have Arrived in Heaven will be at David Zwirner through December 21 . Read more from WIRED : . Powerful Photos Go Deep Inside America 's Fracking Boom . How a Math Genius Hacked OkCupid to Find True Love . The Most Amazing Images NASA Took of Earth From Space . A Teeny House Filled With Clever , Space-Saving Contraptions . 11 Must-Watch New Netflix Movies to Stream in 2014 . Subscribe to WIRED magazine for less than $ 1 an issue and get a FREE GIFT ! Click here ! Copyright 2011 Wired.com .
Japanese artist Naomi Kusama uses her struggle with mental illness to create her art . It is manifested in her exaggerated use of shapes , colors and mirrored surfaces . She has recently opened a new show at the David Zwirner Gallery in New York .