A Trip Through the Land of the Dead
Takashi Murakami’s exhibit, “In the Land of the Dead, Stepping on the Tail of a Rainbow”, is a psychedelic mix of ancient architecture, religion, and culture. Let me set the setting. I am in Manhattan, specifically the lower west side. It is a harsh, cold day. Opening the massive doors to the exhibit, it is warm and the walls are bright white. A friendly private security guard, dressed in suit, waves me along. He motions for me to continue on to the first segment, which begins down a length, pure white hallway. I, along with most visitors, am stopped in shock and awe by the site before us at the end of the hall. A massive, weathered down shrine or temple stands proudly at the end of the hallway. Dead center of the shrine you can see three huge black skulls contrasted by splashes of glittering pinks, greens, blues, and various other bright colors.
The shrine I saw at the end of the hallway, is actually suppose to replicate a gate, from the 10th century, that once led to the capital city of Kyoto, Japan. On the Gagosian Gallery website, Murakami is quoted saying “To me, religions are a narrative…Natural catastrophes, earthquakes, are things caused by nature. Such chaos is natural, but we have to make sense of it somehow, and so we had to invent these stories. That is what I wanted to paint.” In essence, Murakami sought to produce works of art that reflect a mix of natural disasters and religion. The gate is completely weathered down, decorated with holes and wood that emulates the feeling of “surviving the storm”. The gate looks, as if, it would be the last thing standing after a disastrous storm hits Kyoto. My assumption is further proven by the fact that once you look beyond the gate, you see three skulls: skulls, which could represent the dead looming behind it.
As you enter the room, after you have peeled your eyes off the massive gates, you find two enormous creatures adjacent to the gates. Two creatures stand side by side, leaning on clubs half their size, and using smaller creatures as their “soap box” or stepping post. One creature red, other blue, they tower over any visitor. The creatures seem to be asserting their dominance over the inferior creatures. The colossal demons and creatures at the feet are referred to as oni, which is an yōkai or demon. Generally, I would expect to see a creature, protecting a village, defeating oni. However, these statues are different. They look righteous, superior. As if, they can beat anyone who comes there way and they are “top dog”.
Throughout the exhibit, you can find various paintings incorporated psychedelic colors and religious characters, particularly Buddhist. Many of the character painted are grotesque and distorted. The mix of bright colors and eerie characters creates a mix of feelings for all the art goers. It is, as if, he’s contrasting the feelings of joy, the bright colors, and reality distortion, the grotesque creatures.
Many of the visitors were engrossed by a length wall piece of art. Each part of the painting told different parts to an overall story. In the center of the panting, there are the three skulls you saw when first entering the exhibit. Other parts of the wall length painting include a boat lost at sea, an emperor of sorts surrounded by beautiful women, and a grotesque man laying around, being fed by gorgeous women. These grotesque characters could represent Gods, and the beautiful people could be humans, worshipping the Gods to keep the peace, maybe to even prevent natural disasters. The boat, lost at sea, could represent natural disasters, when the Gods are “not pleased”. The whole painting, overall, represents the influence of Gods and natural disasters. Maybe even explaining why these disasters occur in a mythological point of view.
The remainder of the exhibit was repetitive. There were paintings that were same idea, but in different colors. For example, there was a painting of a dragon-beast lying on top of a rainbow made of skulls. The background was gold. The same exact picture hung right next to it. The difference, the background was silver.
Many of the art goers were very fascinated by Murakami’s art. It left many of us dazed, awed, and maybe even a little confused. Many of us were trying to figure out what these pieces meant. A lot of the art goers felt the pieces of art were very distorted, colorful, contrasting, eccentric, and a little grotesque. According to one of the front desk staff, the paintings were actually made of acrylic, which was a first for Murakami. It was a very lengthy process, involving multiple coats of different colors for each piece of art. It made the art really pop out, sparkly, and also dark.
I felt like Takashi Murakami represented his main focus in a tasteful and interesting matter. His aim for this exhibit was to represent the forces behind natural disasters and to make connections to religion. You could see the Buddhist religion in various paintings surrounding the exhibit. Many of these characters were distorted. The gates itself represents natural disasters, but the paintings made me see a story unfolding behind how these disasters occur. Just in a more mythological way. Overall, Takashi Murakami has a very interesting taste in art. This was one of my first art exhibits, and I would like to see more. I especially want to see more of Murakami’s artwork.
NOVEMBER 10, 2014 – JANUARY 17, 2015
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