![]() Translated as ‘pictures of the floating world’, this style of painting is not only well-known due to its depictions of Japanese wealth, power and prosperity, it was also something Murakami has consciously avoided – that is, until now.Īn epic, 25m-long new work, Judgement Day showcases an unravelling composition of classical figures, monsters and beings in various states of being ‘monsterized’, which poetically dovetails with his signature Superflat style that draws from post-Second World War anime and manga aesthetics. Ironically, by contemplating the effects of rampant digital use in our daily lives, by contemplating the effects of rampant digital use in our daily lives, Murakami began pursuing a new visual arc – the incorporation of ukiyo-e motifs, a classical genre of Japanese art spanning the 17th to 19th centuries, into his work. In other words, I have a hard time understanding the distance of new relationships mediated by social media and it troubles me.’ I can’t completely comprehend how best to interact with and through social media, and am at times confused. ‘In The Whale, the ways in which the main character and his daughter communicate through social media and Zoom seemed to illustrate the drastically different ways the generation that has had social networking since birth and my 61-year-old self communicate. ‘One of the recent themes for me in creating new artwork has been the formation of new types of ego and the loss of substance in communication caused by social media,’ Murakami explains. The exhibition’s other namesake (the ‘Swelling of Monsterized Human Ego’) is equally timely and a jab at society’s increasing submersion in the digital realm and its obsession with social media – areas that Murakami, himself a prolific poster, continues to grapple with. Suddenly, around the fall of 2020, new types of monsters were springing to life – and we were able to capture this moment in the pandemic portraits featured in this show, such as Unfamiliar People, and in the works related to the moment when, as he said “his brain turned on” to the potential of virtual and digital art.’ I felt that it was impossible to understand human beings just by looking at the surface.’Īllen observes: ‘Somehow, the pandemic unleashed a kind of creative rebirth for Takashi. Some who seemed to be absolutely kind had abruptly changed, and ![]() ‘After the pandemic started, some people who used to live normal lives started to loudly voice strong opinions, or turned out to be vaccine conspiracy theorists, or started attacking others out of an astonishingly intense sense of fear. 'When I contemplated what the audience might expect and would like to see, based on this “Monsterized” theme, one thing I thought of was monsters that are not in human form,’ he says. In Unfamiliar People, Murakami depicts misshapen, sci-fi-style characters that nod to the world of aliens disguised as people in John Carpenter’s 1988 film They Live, who revealed different and unexpected traits once their surface layers were peeled back. This is how Unfamiliar People became the main visual of this exhibition.’ Then, after the pandemic began, I produced the Unfamiliar People series, which expresses the horror of the moment when humans turn into monsters, and new NFT-related works in rapid succession, so eventually, almost the entire show came to consist of the latest works. ![]() ‘Before the pandemic, we had selected the most recent works at that time. ![]() Laura repeatedly expressed that she wanted to see my latest works,’ Murakami says. ‘Because the exhibition was interrupted by the pandemic, a great deal of time passed between the conception of the exhibition and its completion. Takashi Murakami on Unfamiliar People and monsterization While things ended up being derailed and delayed due to the global pandemic, what has ultimately emerged is an exciting new body of work that will surprise even the most fervent of Murakami fans. Photography: Chiaki Kasahara)īy honing his use of monsters, which has percolated as a theme in the artist’s oeuvre over many years, the show facilitates a probing of Murakami’s darker side, which feels especially poignant against the range of intensities facing the world today.ĭiscussions for the exhibition first began in 2018. (Image credit: Artworks: courtesy of the artist and Perrotin.
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