Walk over the Kurilpa Bridge to George Street. You will shortly arrive at the Queen Elizabeth II Courts complex. The art installation Eyes Are Singing Out is by Yayoi Kusama. It’s as if it is watching you across the grass.

Yayoi Kusama created these eyes especially for this place. It is her only permanent public artwork in Australia. It symbolises the watchful transparency of the court process. It was made in 2012 from steel & enamel. The curator, Jay Younger, explains: It features 312 steel and enamel unblinking eyes. The wall surges 90 metres across the entire city centre block between Roma and George Streets. Metaphorically, the inner workings of the courts are revealed through the Supreme Court building’s glass façade to the unblinking eyes, forever watching. https://jayyounger.com.au/portfolio/brisbane-qeii-courts/

You’ll find find Kusama’s Eyes Are Singing Out  in the public plaza between the Brisbane Elizabeth II Courts complex with the Supreme Court on the left and the Magistrates Court on the right.

Yayoi Kusama mainly worked in minimialist sculpture, printmaking, drawing  and installation and Pop art.

Yayoi grew up in Matsumoto, Japan. She was inspired by American abstract impressionism. In 1958 she moved to New York and joined the avant-garde art scene. Yayoi is now well-known for her polka dots. Her first brightly coloured polka dots appeared on naked people as part of the late 1960s American counterculture.

Yayoi was open about her mental health difficulties. She explained her art was an expression of her hallucinations, internal obsessions and how it allowed her a pathway to live.

After an enormously productive life and recognition world-wide, the Yayoi Kusama Museum opened in Tokyo in October 2017, featuring a large range of her works.

Sculpture sitting inside the Yayoi Kusama Museum on the 4th and top floor.

The Art Gallery in her hometown, Matsumoto, Nagano, Japan, also holds a permanent exhibition. It displays many of her paintings, sculptures and immersive installations.

Yayoi Kusama died at the age of 97 on 14 August 2026 in a hospital in Tokyo.

Done by Law

August 2026