First off, if you missed Adele's performance of "When We Were Young," at the BRIT Awards last week, go back and watch it. We'll wait here. Okay, now that your soul is filled with longing, nostalgia, and visions of pretty lights, you can learn about the high and low art that inspired it: Katy Perry's Instagram and Yayoi Kusama, one of the most influential multi-media artists of the 20th and 21st centuries.
"I saw an Instagram snap from Katy Perry a while ago and I was so blown away by the photograph," Adele says in a video interview with The Broad museum in Los Angeles. She showed it to her creative director, who happens to be a big Kusama fan. Perry's photo was taken in the middle of Kusama's work, "Infinity Mirrored Room — The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away," currently installed at the Broad.
Regular folk can experience this infinity, too. Just visit the Broad and get a timed ticket to stand alone in the mirrored space, lit by LED lights, for 45 seconds. Adele being Adele, she got to stand in there for much longer to film the video that became the backdrop for her performance.
"I definitely think that standing in that room for an hour, I saw things in myself and of myself I haven't noticed before," she told the Broad.
In the interview, Adele also recounts how she's a veteran museumgoer, thanks to her artistic mother, who "dragged" her to see art as a child. In fact, we might have those visits to thank for Adele's artistic development. "I believe me going to museums and experiencing art really did help me to feel okay to express myself how I wanted, which is obviously in my music."