Takashi Murakami: Part 2

I first learned of the name Takashi Murakami two years ago, when my sister came back home from college with one of his art books. I have never been a really artsy person, but within the last few days, I have been trying to appreciate art more and more. I fell in love instantly when I opened his book. It was bright, colorful, and cartoonish. It contained everything I love and looking through the book made me smile. A few months later, I went to Hong Kong and saw his Flowers and Skulls exhibition. It was my second art exhibit, and seeing his work in person was amazing. I was so excited to hear that his newest exhibit has just opened up this month in New York City and I knew I had to go.

The name of the exhibit is In the Land of the Dead, Stepping on the Tail of a Rainbow and is located at the Gagosian Gallery in Chelsea. I have not been to many art galleries, but I do know that art works are placed in a certain way for a reason. There were a total of four rooms set up for Murakami’s work. It starts out in a hallway and on your left is the first room and all the way at the end is another room. The entrance at the end of the hall caught my eye. All you can see at the end is the front of a Japanese temple or shrine and right in the middle of the temple is an opening where you can see gigantic black skulls with colorful eyes. I felt like this was a very creative way to intrigue viewers. The only room that is separated was the first room on the left, but all of the other three rooms were connected. Also, when you exit the last room, you come back out where you started.

I believe the first room was separated for a specific reason. It was different from the other rooms, in the sense that it did not have any Japanese aspects to it. This room was the smallest out of the four and it contained four paintings and one statue. The two paintings on one wall are the same painting but in different colors, and this goes for the other two paintings. The paintings are filled with his signature skulls and even though, they are in bright colors, all of the paintings are sprayed painted with a contrasting phrase, “Death Hate I” and “Hollow.” Contrast, whether it is light versus dark or archaic versus modern day is a theme that is constantly reoccurring in Takashi Murakami’s artwork. I saw it in the exhibit in Hong Kong, and I saw it in the NYC exhibit. At first when you see his works, they all seem very cheerful and lively, but when you carefully examine it, you see aspects of dark elements, like gloomy texts, skulls, and unsightly humans.

The largest room is the room that contained the front of a Japanese old shrine. All the art pieces in this room and the room next to it showed the most Japanese factors. For examples: Japanese writing, koi, dragons, lions, and cherry blossom trees. Like I mentioned earlier, when you first go towards Murakami’s exhibit, you can see giant skulls through the temple and it turns out the skulls belong to a painting that stretches from one end of the room to the other end. The painting was amazing; it was made out of multiple panels and it covered all the colors on the color wheel. I read it in interview that it took around twenty people working every day for a whole year to complete it. I honestly cannot imagine the dedication and work that was placed into this piece. Murakami is very detail-oriented and it shows in his works. Part of the large painting is made up of a sea, however if you look at the waves very closely, there are very small details that make up the giant waves. I knew ahead of time that this exhibition had to do with natural disasters and artwork that was produced in response of it, and knowing this, allowed me to understand his works more. The sea to me can be seen as a symbol of natural disasters. Despite the fact that natural disasters are often connoted with destructive, natural disasters also have a sense of beauty to them. The waves and the surrounding fish were painted beautifully, but in the middle of it is a ship being swallowed up. There are these other two paintings that seem almost exactly the same, except for their colors (like I mentioned earlier, repetition is a reoccurring element in his works). The paintings show a lion-like creature with its cubs relaxing in a peaceful environment and at first it seem like a endearing picture of a family, but then you realize that the creatures are sitting on top of a bridge made out of skulls. The lion-like creatures can be representatives of natural disasters. They are beautiful in their own way, but they do cause death and anguish.

Beside the use of lively colors, Murakami also utilized some metallic colors like gold and silver, especially in his statues. Two of the statues were silver, and one of them was gold. The silver statues were the ones you saw first, and the gold statue was saved for last. The first silver statue was in the first room, and it was the smallest and also the cutest. It resembled a lion and seal. The next silver statue is slightly bigger and was modeled after a human. The last statue is the largest and the most monstrous. It resembled a creature with multiple mouths filled with sharped teeth. The way the statues were designed, caused me to think of social classes and affluence. The gold statue represents the upper class, and the corruption and the hideous characteristics of the rich, while the lower class is portrayed as an innocent creature.

I might have started off liking Takashi Murakami and his works based off how adorable and bubbly his pieces are. Nevertheless after really examining and reading up of his creations, I have appreciated the deeper meanings and inspiration behind it. The way he shows contrast between outer appearance and reality will never cease to amaze me. I expect to see even greater works from Murakami in the near future.