Journal May 2026 Release_Full Edition - Flipbook - Page 32
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infinite number of routes. I think of Carl Sagan (1980), who states, “We’re made
of star-stuff. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself,” and consider how
aesthetics might inspire conversations between our clients and a sense of this
larger belonging (6:17).
Michael White and David Epston have extensively used spatial concepts in
narrative therapy, including metaphors of landscapes and archipelagos. They
draw on practices such as mapping, externalizing, scaffolding, and identifying
subordinate storylines. Reflecting teams and Outsider and Insider Witnessing
Practices enrich clients’ stories from multiple perspectives. De Certeau (1984)
writes, “Stories… traverse and organize places…” and “Every story is … a spatial
practice” (p. 115). Beyond linear emplotment, narrative dimensions can keep
dialogue animated and untethered from constraining structures. In my notes from
art school in 1990, I wrote about the multiplicity of meaning that becomes
possible when our interpretation remains open-ended and intertextual,
describing the “endless play of differences” that art enables through a “… nonlinear temporality that has no hierarchy,” and noting that our “… interpretations
can grow out in all directions.” Similarly, in Kusama’s work, our conversations can
illuminate a postmodern, spatial framework. Elizabeth Deeds Ermarth (1992)
states, “A postmodern narrative submits to the sequential nature of language
grudgingly and at every juncture keeps alive for readers an awareness of multiple
pathways and constantly crossing themes” (p. 53). Memories are never fixed at
their moments of origin but are alive with every retelling. I listen to clients’
recollections as they shapeshift within new relational contexts. Infinity Mirrored
Room inspires us to venture beyond the limitations of linear histories and actively
participate in multimedia performances.
Trapped in the mirror
Kusama’s engagement with representation, mirrors, and mimesis is evident in the
photograph of Infinity Mirrored Room, where the photographer cannot take an
objective photo without including themselves. Kusama’s work requires our
participation, challenging the idea of humans as spectators or of fixed objects
unaffected by our perceptions. We see how Kusama’s Infinity Mirrored Room
Breaking the Frame: Aesthetic Encounters with Narrative Practice – Part Three
Journal of Contemporary Narrative Therapy, May 2026 Release, p. 25-51.
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