Seeing spots: Yayoi Kusama exhibition at Tate Modern - in pictures

The octogenarian artist photographed in front of Yellow Trees (1994). This is the first time Kusama has left Japan in 12 years Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian

Kusama poses for a photograph with her artwork Love Arrives at the Earth Carrying with It a Tale of the Cosmos (2009) Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian

From 1961 onwards, Kusama began her Accumulation series, using everything from shoes to sofas that she found on forages through the streets of New York, and repurposing them to become phallic, flowery, or macaroni-based landscapes Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian

Closeup of Accumulation works Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian

Air Mail Stickers (1962), an early example of Kusama's accumulated assemblage work Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian

Aggregation: One Thousand Boats Show (1963). This work was Kusama's first ever installation, with its phallic-reminiscent rowing boat floating on a wall-to-wall sea of similarly shaped paper boats Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian

The Clouds (1984, foreground) and Heaven and Earth (1991, background) Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian

I'm Here, But Nothing (2000). In this installation, fluorescent strip lights bring thousands of Day-Glo polka dots to life. In one corner, Kusama oversees proceedings from a TV screen and serenades viewers Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian

Detail of the dining room setup in I'm Here, But Nothing Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian

Christmas comes very early in the light installation Infinity Mirrored Room – Filled with the Brilliance of Life (2011), in which dangling dots glint and change colour and endlessly repeat as they retreat away from you Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian

The changing colour of the blinking lights brings a Kryptonite glow to Infinity Mirrored Room – Filled with the Brilliance of Life Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian

The 82-year-old artist talks through her selection of paraphernalia at the Tate preview Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian