My Response...to my response

This post becomes a little ramble-ish, I feel that that’s ok because it is not accessed and its essentially my personal reflection on my work…I feel if I edit it heavily when I look back later it won't be worth it. For a summary of my thoughts please see the dot points at the end (SEARCH FOR ##@@## AS A MARKER).

Firstly I have a little bit of disclaimer or sorts. I understand the aim of our project was to research then respond to our specific artist but I could not help but be influenced by other artists and life in general. If there is any particular outside source which I was influenced by it would have been the music and other media produced by Claudio Sanchez of Coheed and Cambria. Like Murakami Coheed and Cambria operates over different media/mediums for expression. For Coheed and Cambria this expression is a story of a sci-fi-fantasy world depicted in their music, graphic novels or comics and in a novel. That’s just a little back ground information as I feel it affected me if only because there latest album came out at the same time and was playing constantly while I was thinking about this work and producing my response.
My point is that my response is more a self portrait of myself or my mind at the time of creation, with offcourse a focus on Murakaimi’s work and what I understood of it.

Although short, from 1:30 in the video clip embedded above, Murakami provides a small justification to what I have done when talking about “Tan Tan Bo” 2001.

TAN TAN BO 2001
(AGAIN RAMBLE WARNING…dot points at the end of this post)
My character design came about from my own messing around with a drawing I would always do in lectures on the side of my note pad. It is basically the upper position of his spine, just an ‘S’ bend. But if you look through my old note books there is a theme…almost everything I draw/doodle begins with a line like that. It’s a nice smooth motion I can’t help but do reflexively with a pen.

I did chop and change this little character without much thought of using it as a part of my response until I drew this final image.

I just love how it is a mess of lines, and how the two colours work to give it a little life. The messy scribble of lines just looks right and I think is much easier to produce as everything I do with smooth lines looks false. Unfortunately I did not fully appreciate how those two colours bring the little guy to life until I attempted my own in one colour. For some reason this little sketch just looks really human to me.

For the sake of safety, due to my skill level and the need to produce something, I choose to use paint and canvas as my medium.
I painted the back ground a bright red, and my intent was for my character not to take up much more than a third of the canvas in the same sort of way Murakami did in ‘Stew’ of various colours (1995). I wanted my character to seem to be small in a vast area, I don’t believe I have achieved this as well as I would like.
I choose to use the colour red because it is both a warm and inviting colour but when bright it is rather ‘epileptic’. The idea was for a feeling of chaos and comfort at the same time…I get that when I look at the colour although I understand that is probably very subjective.
A major pitfall was that I did not appreciate the extreme difference between painting an image and drawing one. It does make sense that painting would be harder as I have never focused on controlling a brush before (this thought only came to mind as I painted over the first attempt). I use a pen every day, and I use a paint brush…once in the last ten years…it really is a completely different tool to master.

After I produced my work I felt rather discontent. It was all a little too bland and it was easy to see why when I compared my sketch to the paint on canvas. I had not used the scribble lines or the two colours, and this just left my character lifeless in comparison. I did try to add more black to make the lines a little more uneven, which did work to improve my work to a large degree. It also highlighted an issue…I had used an oil based paint. While not a huge drama drying and transporting then became an issue.
Unintentionally I did find a way in which I really do enjoy my work. While trying to clean up the mess I placed the canvas against my window to make room, this lit up the back ground of the image and really lifted the character out of the canvas. This did dull the intent of a chaotic red colour but overall it is more pleasing to look at with the texture given by the differing layers of paint.
This is my first real attempt to participate in art in any way since primary school so I did feel a little anxious and hence took baby steps of sorts. I would have loved to attempt something grand like creating a product/artwork like Murakami does so well but grading and fear got the best of that.
(It is a little sad that grading pushes the safe but bland approach over trying something new…at least that’s how it feels to me at times)

##@@##
So to conclude with some brief notes:
HOW DID I RESPOND TO MURAKAMI?
• I used a large flat plane of colour to display my work on.
• I invented my own character which holds its own representation for me personally
• I attempted to draw the eye to notice the expanse and relative size of the character to express my own message. And to follow from top to tip of my character.
• I expressed myself/memories/feelings/thoughts in a self portrait of shorts much like Murakami’s Tan Tan Bo 2001

POSITIVES (ACCORDING TO ME)
• The red background worked well to show the chaotic and warm.
• The Colour and character placement to show the expanse and relative size.
• The character can be recognised from my sketch to the canvas and vice versa
• I found an interesting way to change my work with backing light.
• I appreciate the difficulty to use different tools/mediums
• I learnt that an eraser does not work well to remove grey led from paint.
• I like my work and am proud of it.
• I want to do it again but better.

NEGATIVES (ACCORDING TO ME)
• Did not pick up on the need to use 2 colours for my character to produce the same effect.
• Did not practice enough with a paintbrush before the due date.
• I simplified too much to attempt to make it less daunting which in the end made it more frustrating (above problems)
• I did not read that the paint was oil paint


Overall this was a good exercise. I want to do more and I am proud of what I have done, not to mention I experimented with art away from a controlled environment (not putting down EDAR, it’s just different when it’s your own time)

Background

Takashi Murakami was born in Tokyo, 1962 (Gagosian.com). Takashi Murakami studied traditional Japanese painting known as Nihonga (as opposed to Yōga, which refers to a western style art), a nineteenth century mixture of Japanese and Western Styles following Japanese conventions. This study was completed at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music where Takashi Murakami received his BFA, MFA and PhD (Artificialgallery.co.uk, 2006-2010).

Takashi Murakami’s artistic direction moved to focus towards Japans modern culture, particularly the Otaku culture of Anime and Manga; this interest was because as Takashi Murakami stated “it was more representative of modern day Japanese life” (Artificialgallery.co.uk, 2006-2010).


Founding the Hiropan Factory in 1996 (Tokyo), which would eventually become Kaikai Kiki Co, Takashi Murakami produced and marketed his own style of artwork along with other artists following the same style. Kaikai Kiki Co now functions as a large scale production company and a supportive environment for fostering young Japanese artists. (Artificialgallery.co.uk, 2006-2010).

Personally, and through Kaikai Kiki Takashi Murakami, strongly supports the promotion of Japanese Art to the rest of the world. Two major examples of this is the GEISAI festival in Japan to promote young emerging talent and the supporting and management of young artists working alongside Takashi Murakami as a part of Kaikai Kiki Co (Kaikaikiki.co.jp, 2005)


Not only does Kaikai Kiki Co produce artworks for exhibition around the world but also a large line of collectable items (selling at much lower prices) featuring Takashi Murakami’s signature images (Artificialgallery.co.uk, 2006-2010). Often Compared to Pop arts Andy Warhol, Takashi Murakami blurs the line between consumer culture and art; although unlike Andy Warhol the process is in reverse as Takashi most often makes his art a consumer product (Jonathan Ross, Japanorama, 2007)

Andy Warhol, Consumer Products into art. Takashi Murakami, Art into Consumer Products.

An example of this is Takashi Murakami’s collaboration with Lois Vuitton producing a bag which sold for $5000 and became one of the most copied handbags world wide, even producing a short anime (Superflat Monogram, 2003) which blended the Takashi Murakami’s work and the product together(Jonathan Ross, Japanorama, 2007).


More recently, in 2008 Takashi Murakami was the only visual artist to make The NY Times mist influential people list (artinfo, 2008).

Takashi Murakami continues to work with Kaikai Kiki Co today producing his own Pop art work and working alongside other established and emerging Japanese artists for exhibitions around the world to this day.

Examples of artworks by Takashi Murakami

Miss Ko² (1997), My Lonesome Cowboy (1998), Hiropon (1997) Takashi Murakami explains these human sized sculptures as an obvious part of the contemporary art scene as there is often strong links to contemporary art and pornographic or sexual themes such as homosexuality, masculinity, feminism, and sexualisation. These pieces are often shocking but are in a way Takashi Murakami’s response to that area of contemporary art. These three sculptures are in the common style of Japanese otaku models; both from and their sexualisation. Normally being small models the size of these and their actions makes them the entire move shocking and a possible commentary on the otaku culture. Stew (blue), Stew (red), Stew (Yellow) (1995) These were produced when Takashi Murakami had just arrived in New York and was quite poor and disorientated. Looking back Takashi Murakami reflected on how depressing this time was, and the embarrassment of these pieces being shown. They were made using very cheap materials, as Takashi Murakami had little money, and with “low technique”. My personal opinion is that these are great images to speak about in a school setting where the same can be said for resources, possible as an inspiration for students or teachers, to demonstrate that the materials or lack of are not as important as developing and using ours skills.

Second Mission Project Ko (1997-2007)

This is work involves three sculptures showing a transition from an idealised otaku women into a jet. Takashi Murakami explains that this piece shows the geek (otaku) sexuality which had developed in otaku culture in Japan and spreads around the world. Kaikai and Kiki (foreground) Time Bokan (2001) (Background) Kaikai and Kiki are in many ways Takashi Murakami’s mascot characters. The Japanese word Kaikaikiki expresses an emotion of extreme awe (well kind of). These two characters are used frequently in Takashi Murakami’s artworks and are very popular products in terms of his company aspect. The image in behind the Kaikai and Kiki is Time Bokan (red) (2001). This piece is a reference to the two atomic bombs dropped on Japan during the last world war. Takashi Murakami explains that the image shows the trauma of the Japanese people and how it has affected their identity. He states that Japanese people are able to make light of this event even though it is still recent in their history. Jonathan Ross comments that the new Japanese culture of cuteness could be seen as a direct reaction to the war and atomic bombs (Jonathan Ross, Japanorama, 2007). With this in mind I find this image extremely interesting as the Kaikai and Kiki seem to be placed in such a way that they are marching ahead of Time Bokan’s image. It is a rather juxtaposed image of cuteness marching out of the trauma and past Japanese identity. It is important to also note that Time Bokan’s eyes contain images of cuteness in the midst of the mushroom cloud.

Takashi Murakami's Movement and Style

Takashi Murakami, as explained previously, has been compared to the likes of Andy Warhol and others who were a part of the contemporary art or pop art scene many years ago. These are good comparisons to make but Takashi Murakami comes from a completely different context having studies Japanese Nihonga and being a Japanese person his entire life either than being brought up in a western society. This difference is what has shaped the career of Takashi Murakami and what sets him apart from those who came before.
Instead of following a style given to him, Takashi Murakami developed his own concept for his art. Whilst his work can be compared to other styles, Japanese and western, I believe it is important to focus on concept or style or art. SUPERFLAT.
(I did try and understand this concept through the book of the same name, by Takashi Murakami but I found I lacked the fundamental art knowledge to properly interoperate Takashi Murakami’s own words. Instead I have developed the following from other sources which simplified his concept/style/Philosophy)


SUPERFLAT
This styles name refers to the way in which it flattens traditional Japanese tradition, modernity and other media into a new “oneness” (Jonathan Ross, Japanorama, 2007). This style is characterised by the use of plat planes of colours and graphic images in a style derived from anime and manga. As mentioned previously Takashi Murakami’s work draws from and comments on modern Japanese Otaku culture. Otaku culture refers to that of anime and manga particularly, often with a sci-fi/fantasy theme and sexual fetishism. This subculture has grown and spread to be openly accepted for the most part in Japan and has spread across the western world, most easily noticed in the adaptation of anime television shows such as Pokémon and Naturo.

Influences and Medium

Takashi Murakami pays homage to those who came before him and influenced him including the masters of Nihonga he studied as a student and the televisions shows and cartoons he grew up with. Takashi Murakami influences others through his work with young up and coming Japanese artists and as a part of the outwards push (and demand) for Japanese pop culture by western countries. I was first introduced to content such as anime as a child in Australia, and since then the availability and acceptance has only grown. This is my reasoning for this type of art to be used in the classroom (although not the sexualised) especially as I myself aim to teach Japanese as a language in schools.
Takashi Murakami’s artworks (as exampled above) are primarily paintings but also include painted balloon works and sculptures; although Takashi Murakami is not as skilled with Sculptures and hence employs assistants to produce him image.




The above video is how I was introduced to teh artist Takashi Murakami, although I had seen his work before knowing who he was.