Plastic artist Takashi Murakami loves mixing pop-art and Asian fine art. For his latest exhibition in New York, the Japanese creates bridges between his physical works of contemporary and virtual art in the metaverse.
The artist who has been called the “Japanese Andy Warhol” complains to AFP that the young generations addicted to screens “do not understand the history of contemporary art.”
“But taking advantage of augmented reality, perhaps they could open their eyes and penetrate this world of contemporary art,” he says, presenting his exhibition “An Arrow Through History” in Manhattan, installed at the gallery of Larry Gagosian, one of the art dealers Most important in the world.
In the immense gallery in New York, in three different places, Takashi Murakami builds catwalks between traditional fine arts, especially Chinese, Japanese pop-art –such as characters from magazines and cartoons– and NFTs, non-reproducible digital files and unfalsifiable ones that represent unique assets, virtual or physical objects, which are the new goose that lays the golden eggs of the art market.
“When I work on a creation, I do not make any distinction between digital and analog. I always work in the context of contemporary art,” explains the artist, quoted in the exhibition’s press release.
– Chinese pots and Snapchat –
Murakami, 60, has reproduced and painted blue and white fish motifs inspired by those on Chinese porcelain vessels dating from the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368) on thick fabrics and wooden structures.
Thanks to the Snapchat application and an augmented reality filter, the visitor can experience an immersion in the showroom with digital images of fish that navigate around the physical works of art with their phone.
The same goes for the 108 “Murakami Flowers” NFT pixel art project, in which visitors will see “the artist’s latest interpretation of his celebrated flowers that mixes his ‘super-flat’ aesthetic and a style that evokes nostalgia for the pixelated design from 1980s video games, particularly those on the Nintendo Famicom console,” the gallery explains.
“Japanese culture comes from the Eurasian continent and my concept is to go further, into the metaverse,” says Takashi Murakami.
The metaverse is a parallel digital universe, accessible through augmented or virtual reality (AR or VR) glasses, that has accelerated since the 2020 pandemic and the explosion of remote work or leisure.
During the pandemic and confinement in Japan, “I was observing reality from home and it was a very important moment, because for us not being able to leave the house was extremely stressful. But my children took advantage of it” thanks to the screens, Murakami tells the AFP.
“I needed to change my position, adapt to the new generation of my children and launch myself. This exhibition is the first response,” he concludes.
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