new journal

2005-07-12T04:04:52Z

123581321

ps. add me because im too lazy going around adding people.

an article in Filter mag that peaked my interest

2005-07-09T09:44:48Z

Portrait of a Little Boy
Takashi Murakami on the Psyche of Japanese Art
by: Tom Manning

IT IS SAID that America's decision to drop two atomic bombs on Japan in 1945 was made because they feared a land war would destroy Japan altogether. Perhaps what wasn't considered was that the psychological repercussions of that action would be as damaging as the land war they wished to avert. Between the crushing blow of losing the war, the trauma of two nuclear attacks and coming to terms with America's role as enemy-cum-protector, Japan's psyche was deeply altered. These mighty would-be rulers of the Pacific--watched over by an Emperor regarded as a deity--were reduced to chaotic rubble in under 10 yeras. America came by, picked them up, dusted off their hair, tied their shoes and said, "Don't you worry, go watch some TV while I write your constitution. We'll all have milk and cookies later." And now, one finds that post-war Japan is a society that--in dealing with this trauma, this generational aftershock--has been unable to grow up.

This idea is rife in Japanese pop culture. It is a society filled with anime, manga, and an undeniable Lolita complex. It's in Godzilla, in which a monster awoken by the atomic bomb attacks an entirely helpless metropolis. It's in the sensationally popular cartoon series Doraemon, in which a school boy named Nobi Nobita is constantly getting himself into trouble and getting bailed out by a robotic cat from the future that pulls exotic devices out of a magical four-dimensional portal in his belly. (In case you are confused, the cat represents America.) It is this adolescent powerlessness and frustration that is explored in the phenomenal art show currently at New York City's Japan Society. This show--curated by Japanese art supstar Takashi Murakami--takes its title from the nickname the American military gave the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. A name eerily fitting in retrospect: Little Boy.

Takashi Murakami has built his current fame as an artist who embraces all forms. If you've missed his poppy pieces in gallery shows, then the wildy successful cartoon-eye-speckled bags he designed for Louis Vuitton must have crossed your path at some point. Murakami has also proved to be the go-to man for showcasing modern Japanese art and culture to the Western world. In 2000, his Superflat show in Los Angeles was a sensation. He followed it with the Coloriage show in Paris 2002. And while these previous shows highlighted modern Japanse art of all kinds, this Manhattan project is the most powerful by far. With its giddy embrace of both modern Japanse fine artists such as Yoshitomo Nara and Hideaki Kawashima, as well as Japanese otaku culture (the term for people obsessed with anime and Manga), Murakami fills rooms with an irresistible mix of vintage figurines, original comic book pages, gorgeous anime classics like Evangelion and Akira, and of course that stuff we Westerners call "fine art." But running through each item in the show is a convincing argument that the Japanese psyche has remained in a state of infancy for decades. It is also clear that this has led to all types of gorgeous, subtle and powerful art.

Filter was lucky enough to track Murakami down for an extra close of enlightenment on this can't-miss show.

This idea that Japan is being hindered from growing up because of the post-war relationship with America is shocking, yet very simple once you think about it. How long have you felt this way and how did you come to this realization?
I have been realizing this over the last 10 years. After I started to work as an artist and travel aborad to many different countries, my perspective towards Japan changed. It's been an ongoing realization as I work with people both in Japan and abroad, and has especially developed over the last two years as I have worked on Little Boy.

You also show how this idea runs through popular Japanse movies and TV shows. Do you think people write shows like these on purpose because it appeals to the people of Japan, or do you think this is something subconscious?
While some people are more conscious than others, I think that stories like this certainly appeal to the subconcious of people in Japan. I think that stories like this are so prevalent, that a lot of the storytelling is less inhibited, and it expresses these feelings as a natural subject without feeling stigmatized by it.

When you acted as curator of Little Boy and saw the same ideas going through Japanese art and culture for decades, did you begin to feel frustrated? Or did you find something beautiful about the permanent childhood of Japan?
This is a difficult question. I think that being a child is an attractive option because people feel safe and protected. I won't deny that there is something beautiful about the "eternal child." I feel frustrated often, but in the end I believe that things will play their natural course.

When one looks back on old Japanese art, you don't see a painterly, realistic style like that found in European art. It's more like drawings, or even cartoons. This makes even pre-war Japanese art seem child-like, especially to a Westerner. So how much is the aesthetic of modern Japan based on post-war mentality and how might it be based on a style that has always been part of the culture?
Definitely both. Japan is interesting because it is an old, and in some ways simpler culture that quickly took on a hyper-modern facade.

Superflat, Coloriage, and Little Boy have all been in western cities. Is this because you feel people in Japan already understand what you are trying to say about Japanese culture? Or are you trying to introduce Japanese art sensiblities to the Western world?
Mostly, I had this show in New York because the Japan Society asked me to do a show, and I agreed. The audience for the Superflat shows is better outside of Japan, because Japanese people wouldn't find the exhibit as curious or new as Americans. They grew up with manga and anime and the atomic bomb. They know it very well. I think that Americans are still unaware to a large degree about some of the deeper impacts of the war and the bomb and post-war policy on Japanese culture.

As an artist, you don't dwell on the division of "High Art" versus "Low Art". You embrace fine art, otaku culture and commercial art with equal importance. This is still shocking to us Westerners even though artists such as Warhol and Jeff Koons were supposed to have broken that mold long ago. Do you feel as a Japanese artist you never had to deal with this division because Japan never erected a wall between "High Art" and "Low Art" in the first place?
I am shocking to people because not only do I embrace "Low Art" images and culture as an "artist", but also because I literally take my "art" and make salable product weith it. I refuse to accept the boundaries. I want to make toys and clothes and movies as well as paintings and sculptures, which stems from both Japanese culture--whre there is less of a distinction--and my personal aspirations. This is also what makes me different from Warhold and Koons.

Do you see any end to the otaku culture on the horizon?
I think that as Japan is more and more exposed to foreign thinking, and as Japanese people seek to change more integral aspects of their soceity among foreign ideas and systems, fewer people will devote as much energy to otaku-like areas because they will find it too childish and introverted. I just hope that the beautiful and thorough devotion found there can be redirected and not lost. F

I'll update about my life later or something.

sensualized @ 2005-05-28T10:41:00

2005-05-28T17:42:28Z

Mogwai, Take Me Somewhere Nice

whenever you feel like an artsy fuck

2005-02-21T04:31:50Z

articulate

from the time we were great

new journal

an article in Filter mag that peaked my interest

sensualized @ 2005-05-28T10:41:00

whenever you feel like an artsy fuck