Inviting Children to Explore Yayoi Kusama’s Obliteration

As part of exploring influential women in art, we introduced the children to Yayoi Kusama, a groundbreaking artist known around the world for her bold use of color, repetition, and her iconic polka dots. Kusama has spent decades creating immersive installations, paintings, and sculptures that transform everyday spaces into vibrant works of art. Her work often explores the idea that small repeated elements like dots can grow and spread until they completely transform an object or environment.

One of her most famous interactive installations is The Obliteration Room. In this installation, an entirely white room filled with white furniture is slowly covered with colorful dot stickers by visitors. Over time, the once blank space becomes completely “obliterated” with dots, turning the room into a collaborative and ever-changing artwork. The installation invites people of all ages to participate and become part of the creative process.

Inspired by this idea, we invited the children to create their own miniature version of Kusama’s concept. We began by providing 3-D box structures made from recycled packaging materials, which were spray painted white to resemble the blank space of the Obliteration Room. The children were then invited to transform the boxes by placing colorful dot stickers all over them. As they worked, the simple white boxes slowly became vibrant and playful sculptures filled with pattern and color.

This experience supports many important developmental skills. Placing small stickers strengthens fine motor control and hand-eye coordination, while repeating dots encourages pattern recognition and early mathematical thinking. Working with recycled materials also introduces children to creative reuse, showing them that everyday objects can be transformed into art. Most importantly, this type of open-ended experience encourages children to experiment, collaborate, and see themselves as active participants in the creative process—just like visitors contributing to Kusama’s Obliteration Room.