Pumpkin
All The Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins, 2016
Yayoi Kusama
Acrylic pumpkins, LED lighting, black glass, mirrors, wood, metal
Traveling Exhibit; Currently At Dallas Museum of Art
"Pumpkins have been a great comfort to me since my childhood," said Kusama. "They speak to me of the joy of living… I love pumpkins because of their humorous form, warm feeling, and a human-like quality and form. My desire to create works of pumpkins still continues. I have enthusiasm as if I were still a child.”
Pumpkins or winter squash are native to North America believing to be originated in Mexico dating back to around 7500 to 5500 B.C. The name pumpkin originated from the Greek word "pepon" for "large melon.” "Pepon" was changed by the French to "pompon." Then English changed it to "Pumpion." American colonists changed "pumpion" into "pumpkin."
Pumpkins travels are complex but here are two ways pumpkin seeds became worldly travelers.
First in Mexico, the pumpkin or known as a calabaza. Calabaza was used as a common food during the harvest and winter months during the Aztec Civilization. Following roots of the Aztec and Indigenous people who would use the calabaza in offering and other rituals. The Aztec prized the pumpkin in their culture in foods, ceremonies, or festivals which had grown into the Mexican culture. When the first Spanish explorers arrived in Mexico, they had enjoyed the pumpkin and brought seeds back to their country and let it spread all over the world.
The second origin was with Native Americans, who used pumpkins as a staple in their life, from food, medicine, and crafts such as weaving mats. Native Americans called pumpkins ”isqoutm squash." When the first settlers arrived in the New World, they had been captivated by the uses of pumpkins. When some settlers went back to the Motherland, they had brought seeds back letting them grow and prosper over the rest of the world.
Over time the pumpkin has marked the Harvest season. Use in many foods such as pumpkin pie and roasting seeds especially during Thanksgiving. Later Starbucks starting making pumpkin spice lattes to mark the autumn season.
Pumpkin carving was associated with Halloween when the Irish and Scottish tradition of carving lanterns from vegetables originated from an Irish myth about a man named “Stingy Jack.” Immigrants to the US used pumpkins which were much larger than other vegetables. This lead to the word jack-o'-lantern as a term to carve a vegetable lantern. Around 1866 carving pumpkins lantern association with Halloween to ward of demons that come out on Halloween.
Pumpkins are known for many folk tales like in Cinderella’s pumpkin carriage, Jack Pumpkinhead from Wizard of Oz, The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, and The Legend of Sleepy Hallows.