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Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.

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Speaker 1: It's Monday, January five, twenty twenty six. The world wakes

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Speaker 1: today to a new Donald Trump shaped global order, with

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Speaker 1: the United States appointing itself to govern Venezuela after capturing

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Speaker 1: President Nicholas Maduro Moros and his wife. Maduro, whom the

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Speaker 1: United States accuses of financing, profiting from, and facilitating the

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Speaker 1: global cocaine trade, was seized in a giant operation involving

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Speaker 1: the US military and Drug Enforcement Agency. An indictment released

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Speaker 1: by the Department of Justice accuses Maduro of being a

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Speaker 1: narco terrorist who allows drug gangs, including the giants Sinaloa Cartel,

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Speaker 1: to commit murder, human trafficking, and transporting huge quantities of drugs.

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Speaker 1: With the protection of diplomatic passports and the collaboration of

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Speaker 1: law enforcement and the Venezuelan military, We're going.

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Speaker 2: To have our very large United States oil companies, the

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Speaker 2: biggest anywhere in the.

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Speaker 1: World, go and spend billions of dollars fix the badly

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Speaker 1: broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for

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Speaker 1: the gunjy. Maduro is now in New York with his

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Speaker 1: wife Chilia Flores awaiting trial. The detention of the Maduros

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Speaker 1: comes after Trump and Secretary of Warpete Hegseth released a

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Speaker 1: new national security strategy in November twenty twenty five, which

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Speaker 1: set out Trump's vision for a new world order. The

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Speaker 1: strategy endorsed the so called Monroe Doctrine. That's a principle

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Speaker 1: from the eighteen twenties that rejects European colonialism in the

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Speaker 1: so called New World and asserts America's right to complete

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Speaker 1: independence from European affairs. Trump said he would use the

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Speaker 1: Monroe Doctrine to quote restore America's supremacy in the Western hemisphere,

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Speaker 1: and he added something he calls the Trump Corollary. That

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Speaker 1: is a new principle called Enlist and expand. It means

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Speaker 1: enlisting established friends in the West to control migration, stop

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Speaker 1: drug flows, and strengthen stability and security, while cultivating and

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Speaker 1: strengthening new partners in economic and security cooperation. The Venezuela mission,

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Speaker 1: where America is removing what it calls a corrupt and

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Speaker 1: broken government, is the first enactment of the Trump Corollary.

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Speaker 1: This story is moving fast and you can follow it

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Speaker 1: live at the Australian dot Com. Today on the Front,

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Speaker 1: we're stepping back into a moment that captivated Australians in

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty five. The unrivaled superstar of art right now

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Speaker 1: is a Japanese nonagenarian named Yayoi Kosama. She lives a

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Speaker 1: reclusive life in a psychiatric facility in Japan, but thanks

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Speaker 1: to Instagram, she's never more popular. Today. Chief Culture Correspondent

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Speaker 1: Tim Douglas joins The Front's Kristin Amiot to explore why

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Speaker 1: Kasama is such a big deal and how her work

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Speaker 1: created the biggest moment in the Australian art scene over

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Speaker 1: the past year. The magical works of a ninety five

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Speaker 1: year old Japanese artist are bound for Melbourne.

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Speaker 2: Vibrant color reflections, pumpkins and polka dots are set to

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Speaker 2: swamp the entire ground floor of the National Gallery this summer.

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Speaker 3: I think the mirror rooms are going to blow people away.

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Speaker 2: I mean, if you saw it.

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Speaker 1: The Tate had two mirror rooms for about a year

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Speaker 1: and there were cues of people coming in every day.

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Speaker 1: We're talking far.

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Speaker 3: More than that. Yea, Yoi Kasama won't see it in person,

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Speaker 3: as she doesn't leave Japan, but gallery staff say her

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Speaker 3: blessing has made it possible. Tim Douglas is the Australian's

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Speaker 3: chief culture correspondent, What did you think of it?

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Speaker 2: It was kind of seismic actually for the art industry

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Speaker 2: in Australia. And it wasn't just the big instagrammable works

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Speaker 2: that we know. The beauty of that show was that

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Speaker 2: a really charted Kassama's career from very humble beginnings and

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Speaker 2: some of those infinity paintings she did those really subtle,

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Speaker 2: almost mindful works into these kind of gargantua and inflatable,

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Speaker 2: almost garish works that we know her for. In the

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Speaker 2: twenty first.

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Speaker 3: Century, Australians in particular seem to love Jayokasama's art. I

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Speaker 3: spent a long time in the gift shop at the MGV,

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Speaker 3: wandering around looking for something to take home that I

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Speaker 3: could fit in my bag on the plane. There were

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Speaker 3: so many beautiful trinkets and books, and I actually settled

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Speaker 3: on a children's book with little punction shaped children's book

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Speaker 3: that was all about different types of spots. They were

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Speaker 3: all different colors and textures and that sort of thing,

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Speaker 3: and I thought that just represented not only the exhibition

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Speaker 3: but her really well, what do you think think it

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Speaker 3: is that makes Australians in particular gravitate to Yao Kassama's work.

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Speaker 2: It's interesting, I mean, obviously geographically we're not so far away.

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Speaker 2: Australia has a complicated and very interesting relationship with Japan

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Speaker 2: from World War Two onwards. Of course, Kasama's involvement in

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Speaker 2: that particular conflict was visceral in itself. I mean, she

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Speaker 2: was a child working in a munition's factory making parachutes

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Speaker 2: for the war effort. And I think it's interesting that

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Speaker 2: you chose a children's book because much of Kassama's comes

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Speaker 2: from her childhood, which wasn't in the story. She tells

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Speaker 2: about it a particularly pleasant experience. She grew up in

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Speaker 2: a nursery, very strict parents. Her mother tore up any

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Speaker 2: artwork she might have made. She has spoken in the

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Speaker 2: past very honestly about the hallucinations she experienced as a child,

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Speaker 2: seeing these polka dots in front of her eyes, which

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Speaker 2: is representation of her mental state. The pumpkins that she

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Speaker 2: drawls and perhaps were a big part of that book

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Speaker 2: you bought. It's a direct line to her childhood and

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Speaker 2: the pumpkins that were grown at this seedling plant, this

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Speaker 2: nursery where she grew up. Why do Australians love Kassama

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Speaker 2: so much? It's a great question. I mean, were you

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Speaker 2: to ask our art critic Christah Allen, he doesn't particularly

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Speaker 2: like her work, he doesn't particularly value it, and there

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Speaker 2: are a lot of very serious critics around the world

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Speaker 2: who don't rate Kasama's work. However, as evidenced by you know,

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Speaker 2: almost six hundred thousand streaming through the doors of the

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Speaker 2: MGV over the course of four months, Australians clearly do

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Speaker 2: love Kasama's work. She's shown here in the past in

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Speaker 2: very popular shows and I think there is something to

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Speaker 2: be said for the Instagram factor about her work, and

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Speaker 2: so people want to share that and I think, yeah,

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Speaker 2: there's a certain amount of street cred that comes with

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Speaker 2: these days, with sharing that sort of moment. So it's

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Speaker 2: a great question whether Australians really do love that art

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Speaker 2: or they just wanted to be part of something special.

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Speaker 2: And I think it was a momentous occasion for the

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Speaker 2: art world. Irrespective of value critically of her.

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Speaker 3: Artwork, Jaokasama was already well known in the art world

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Speaker 3: prior to the advent of social media. Do you think

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Speaker 3: that she would have had the mass appeal that she

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Speaker 3: has in Australia and around the world if not for

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Speaker 3: the Instagram factor, Or do you think that has just

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Speaker 3: supercharged what was an already successful career in art.

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Speaker 2: Her career is really interesting because, as I said, a

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Speaker 2: very kind of complicated childhood and a complicated mental state

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Speaker 2: meant that she had trouble making her name. In Japan,

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Speaker 2: she studied Nihonga painting and then had this great affinity

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Speaker 2: with the natural world and contacted great American painter and

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Speaker 2: pioneering female artists in the States. Georgia O'Keeffe sent her

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Speaker 2: a letter and this letter is was in the show,

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Speaker 2: which is amazing. Georgia O'Keeffe wrote a letter back saying,

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Speaker 2: come to America and you can do great things. And

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Speaker 2: she did go to America and then began making work

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Speaker 2: with Donald jard around the time of Andy Warhol, et

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Speaker 2: cetera in that time, but didn't get to where she

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Speaker 2: wanted to go. But she had a very serious mental breakdown,

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Speaker 2: culminating in a suicide attempt, which meant she went home.

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Speaker 2: In nineteen seventy three, she checked herself into a mental

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Speaker 2: facility in Tokyo and she's lived there ever since. It

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Speaker 2: was mister Tatihata, who was the boss of the National

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Speaker 2: Museum in Osaka at the time, who in the eighties

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Speaker 2: reconnected with Kassama and resurrected her career with a retrospective

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Speaker 2: that coincided with a shift I suppose in society. It

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Speaker 2: was before the advent, of course, of the digital revolution,

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Speaker 2: but it wasn't far away, and I think Kasama's really

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Speaker 2: ridden that wave. Certainly, she's in the sweet spot right

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Speaker 2: now in terms of social media, but yeah, I mean,

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Speaker 2: her popularity really kind of soared before social media, so

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Speaker 2: there is something about her work connects with people in

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Speaker 2: a very real and visceral way.

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Speaker 3: Do you think that the average punter who goes along

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Speaker 3: to see an exhibition like this, or sees Yo Cassama's

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Speaker 3: work in a book or wherever, actually registers those themes

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Speaker 3: or are they just taking it at face value?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? Look, I think there's a certain section of people

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Speaker 2: who just want to be there for the occasion, who

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Speaker 2: want to be part of the cool show that's happening

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Speaker 2: in town. But I think the beauty of that show

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Speaker 2: that we are speaking about in Melbourne was that it

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Speaker 2: was done in the chronological way, and it really kind

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Speaker 2: of showed that evolution of not just the artist, but

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Speaker 2: the woman, because the woman she is now. And I

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Speaker 2: know this from having spoken to mister Tatiato, who's one

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Speaker 2: of her closest friends. You know, she's apparently a very

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Speaker 2: funny person. She calls him at two in the morning

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Speaker 2: and says, you need to come over here because I'm

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Speaker 2: going to hurt myself unless you do. So he gets

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Speaker 2: in a cab and this man's eighty years old himself.

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Speaker 2: He gets in a cab and races over and she

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Speaker 2: starts laughing and saying, why are you here? What are

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Speaker 2: you doing? You know, And so she kind of I

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Speaker 2: was speaking to her galerist as well, who said, at

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Speaker 2: the time he sold one of her pumpkins for some

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Speaker 2: phenomenal amount of money, let's say ten million dollars, and

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Speaker 2: he showed her the check and said, you're happy with this?

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Speaker 2: And she put another zero at the end and said,

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Speaker 2: now I'm happy with.

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Speaker 1: It, you know. And so I respect that.

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Speaker 2: I respect that. And so she's by all accounts a

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Speaker 2: very kind of singular human. She's now in her late

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Speaker 2: nineties and she lives still in this institution with twenty

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Speaker 2: four hour care and a very close group of trusted

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Speaker 2: confidants who support her. She has no family left, and

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Speaker 2: she had a very complicated relationship with that family. But

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Speaker 2: I think the bauity of that show was that it

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Speaker 2: was so well done that anyone with an interest in

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Speaker 2: the woman herself and her art and you know, saw

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Speaker 2: that couch of Fallis's and wondered, why is it a

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Speaker 2: couch of Fallises? And then you realize that she witnessed

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Speaker 2: her father having an affair as a child and engendered

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Speaker 2: in her an immediate fear of sex that she carried

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Speaker 2: with her through her life, into her personal relationships and beyond.

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Speaker 1: Coming up more of Kristen Amiot's chat with Chief Culture

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Speaker 1: correspondent Tim Douglas.

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Speaker 3: She is, as you said, living in a facility that

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Speaker 3: she's been in for decades. She is, for all intents

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Speaker 3: and purposes, a recluse. But then she's on billboards in

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Speaker 3: Times Square, she's doing a collaboration with Louis Verton, she's

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Speaker 3: got the biggest ever exhibition at the MGV. Is she

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Speaker 3: kind of a contradiction in that way, and that she

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Speaker 3: seems to want to keep to herself. But yet she

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Speaker 3: has such broad appeal and seems quite willing to engage

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Speaker 3: with the commercial side of art and that sort of thing.

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Speaker 3: Is that what makes her so unique?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it does feel that way. I mean, if you

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Speaker 2: knew nothing of her mental state or where she lived,

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Speaker 2: you'd think she was a hustler. I mean, you think

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Speaker 2: she was a mover and shaker in that world, someone

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Speaker 2: with great commercial mouse and interest in the fashion world

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Speaker 2: and the world of finance. Look, whether that's true or not,

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Speaker 2: I'm not sure, and I imagine very few people are

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Speaker 2: because she doesn't give interviews and she really leaves her

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Speaker 2: place of residence. But when I spoke to mister Taddy

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Speaker 2: Harder about her, he said she produces work every day.

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Speaker 2: And now she produces work because, in his words and

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Speaker 2: in her words of her mental state, she needs to

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Speaker 2: paint these things, these things that present themselves before her eyes.

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Speaker 2: She needs to get that out of a system and

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Speaker 2: to work every day. And so while she's not making

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Speaker 2: large scale of pumpkins from hand, she's still drawing each day.

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Speaker 2: And last year she embarked on a new sort of

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Speaker 2: creative avenue where she began doing portraits of young Japanese people,

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Speaker 2: and mister Tatty Harder at that point said it was

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Speaker 2: a new sort of artistic avenue for her. We haven't

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Speaker 2: seen any of those things in public at this point,

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Speaker 2: but it seems very much to be some sort of

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Speaker 2: response to her childhood, and so I think it's really interesting.

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Speaker 2: The oldest she gets, the more perhaps introspective, she seems

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Speaker 2: to be getting. But again it is a contradiction in

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Speaker 2: a way, and she's so sought after. Of course, she

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Speaker 2: was the highest selling artist in the world last year,

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Speaker 2: a phenomenal amount of money still exchanging hands at the

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Speaker 2: altar of her work, and so it's I think she's

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Speaker 2: still the most interesting person in the art world, living

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Speaker 2: or dead. I think at this point.

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Speaker 3: They say that imitation is the greatest form of flattery,

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Speaker 3: and I'm sure that there are already people out there

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Speaker 3: trying to emulate what has made Yao Kasama so special

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Speaker 3: for so long. Do you think there'll ever be another

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Speaker 3: artist like her?

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Speaker 2: I don't think so. I mean, this is a person

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Speaker 2: who grew up in very conservative Japan and began experiencing

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Speaker 2: serious mental deterioration as the onset of global war came.

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Speaker 2: For a relatively small country, moved to New York at

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Speaker 2: a seismic time for art and culture and society was

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Speaker 2: chewed up and spat out. It's lived in a mental

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Speaker 2: institution and somehow created a niche for herself as the

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Speaker 2: world's highest and most saleable artist. I unless there's some

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Speaker 2: who knows what's ahead on the horizon, But I mean,

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Speaker 2: I think in terms of lived experience, few have seen

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Speaker 2: what she's seen quite literally, and you know, I think she's,

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Speaker 2: as I said earlier, it's kind of singular cultural icon

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Speaker 2: of our time.

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Speaker 1: Tim Douglas is The Australian's chief culture correspondent. You can

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Speaker 1: read all the latest in culture right now, plus all

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Speaker 1: the best world and local news, at the Australian dot

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Speaker 1: com dot a u