Takashi Murakami: Smooth Nightmare
Drawing, 2000
Deutsche Bank
Collection
And
Yoshitomo Nara and
Groovisions, the hottest graphic designers in Japan. If you put everything
Murakami's done aside, what remains is the importance of his
contextualizing current Japanese culture within a traditional trajectory.
You can talk about it with his work, the roots in Japanese painting, and
the studio system, not as a
Warholian system but as directly related to the Ka-No system, which is a
1,500 year-old system in which all artists existed on the same level; he
was the head master, but they all worked with him. If you purchase a Ka-No
school painting, it could have been made by Ka-No's son or any number of
people who worked under him as a collaborative project. Murakami's studio
and work fall under the umbrella of the factory of the Ka-No school (in
ref. to
Kano Sansetsu, who lived during the Edo period, 1615-1868).
CK: Were the collaborations with Naoki Takizawa at Miyake and Marc
Jacobs at Vuitton an extension of the Ka-No way of working via Murakami's
studio system?
TB: There's a Japanese expression, which is
actually an English expression called "catch-ball." Marc Jacobs threw the
ball to Murakami who threw the ball back to Jacobs. The same thing happens
in the studio.
CK: An extended
exquisite corpse, working in collaborative manner on drawings, like the
Surrealists did?
TB: That's a good analysis.
CK
: How has the perception of Murakami's work changed with the latest
fashion projects?
TB: Only recently, through a combination
of auction records, Louis Vuitton, Rockefeller Center, and even the
Roppongi Hills project in Tokyo, has Murakami been propelled into a
different zone in Japan. The Mori Art Center is a satellite collaboration
with MoMA, with the first Western museum director in Japan,
David Elliot. Murakami is still doing all of the identity for that
project. Everywhere you go,
light boxes, sculptures, and characters have been developed by Kaikai
Kiki. Murakami's going to be the director of the
Tokyo International Film Festival this fall. He's very close to
Beat Takeshi (Takeshi Kitano), the great modern filmmaker and comedian.
They had a show together. Murakami was propelled into the public eye with
these projects and the Mori Art Center boosted him domestically.
CK: Why is Hollywood an important next step for Murakami?
TB
: Because of the audience. There's an animation film project we're working on
now, and the target audience is six year-olds. When Murakami was six, his
parents took him to see
Goya; it had a huge impact. Goya! He's interested in a younger audience
because he can imprint them in good ways, not just a Disney way.
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It will be a significant film, not an independent project.
All his influences and dreams as a child were through animated film. The
Japanese king of animation,
Hayao Miyazaki, the director of
Spirited Away, is Murakami's true artistic hero.
CK:
Goya is also related to animation. Manet understood
Goya in that way with
The Execution of Emperor Maximilian, and so did
Dinos and Jake Chapman with their
Goya series. Again, Murakami both embraces and rejects history.
TB: He wants to forget history because he's trying to find a new way. But
history is in his blood and his subconsciousness. He's looking for a new
twist.
CK: What did Murakami learn from fashion?
TB: He learned
about real business and the massive differential between the art world and
business and the fashion business. It's a gross difference. The amount of
money they generate as a company and the amount of people obsessed with
fashion and why high-end fashion works is super interesting for Murakami:
it's that whole notion of engendering desire.
CK: Murakami
combines detachment and seduction by way of beauty and the novel. There's
a parallel to fashion. Is fashion a good thing for Murakami to have been
involved in?
TB: Definitely. It helped realize, not just
conceptually, but in a real way, his notion of the "Superflat."
Previously, everything existed on a museum or purely art world level. The
Vuitton collaboration slammed him into the real world. It couldn't have
been anything other than fashion. The speed with which fashion can be
conceived, developed, and made is different from film. The fashion
connection was a no-brainer. You can't script that kind of thing.
Takashi Murakami: Smooth Nightmare
Drawing, 2000
Deutsche Bank
Collection
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