Aspiring to Pumpkin’s Love, the Love in My Heart

Aspiring to Pumpkin’s Love, the Love in My Heart is a series of three monumental painted-bronze sculptures by Yayoi Kusama, developed for David Zwirner. The works introduce an undulating, wall-like interpretation of Kusama’s iconic pumpkin motif, surrounding viewers with organic forms covered in her signature polka-dot patterns.

A significant part of my role focused on developing a method to accurately translate Kusama’s two-dimensional polka-dot compositions onto the sculptures’ complex three-dimensional surfaces. Dot layouts were developed digitally in Rhino and translated into full-scale vinyl stencils for fabrication. HoloLens 2 and Fologram were also used as augmented-reality tools to verify the position, scale, and alignment of the patterns directly against the full-scale sculptures.

At UAP, I led the technical design and development of the sculptures, translating Kusama’s complex organic geometries into a fabrication and assembly strategy suitable for large-scale bronze production. This included developing the segmentation of the forms into castable components, resolving connections and assembly, and coordinating technical requirements throughout fabrication.

The project combined digital modeling, traditional bronze fabrication, and augmented-reality workflows to develop precise technical solutions while maintaining the visual continuity and intent of Kusama’s work across a highly complex physical surface.