A giant polka dot patterned pumpkin has been unveiled in Kensington Gardens after it was sent “to London with love” by its Japanese artist creator.
The six-metre-high bronze sculpture by Yayoi Kusama is located by the round pond in the park and goes on show 24 years after the Serpentine Gallery gave Kusama her first British retrospective show.
The 95-year-old, known for her trademark polka dots, regularly uses images of pumpkins in her work.
She said: “I am sending to London with love my giant pumpkin.
“Since my childhood pumpkins have been a great comfort to me, they are such tender things to touch, so appealing in colour and form.
“They are humble and amusing at the same time and speak to me of the joy of living.”
Kusama is one of the world’s best-selling living female artists and her mirror room show at TateModern ran for three years due to public demand only closing this April.
Serpentine CEO Bettina Korek and artistic director Hans Ulrich Obrist said it was “an honour”for the gallery to show her work.
In a statement, they said: “Her signature pumpkins have become a landmark motif for the artistand this project is a reunion for Kusama and Serpentine: her first major survey exhibition in Britain was staged in our galleries in 2000.”
Visitors to the Serpentine can also see this year’s pavilion which was designed by Koreanarchitect Minsuk Cho and includes a library, a play tower and a tea house all designed around a traditional Korean courtyard.
:: Pumpkin will be on show until November 3.
