http://menlopark.ca a journal on the collision of art, design, architecture and landscapeTue, 05 Aug 2014 12:34:31 +0000hourly1http://menlopark.ca/takashi-murakami-the-meaning-of-the-nonsense-of-the-meaning/#comment-31 Tue, 05 Aug 2014 12:34:31 +0000http://menlopark.ca/dev/?p=142#comment-31“The work is an appropriation from the popular genre of erotic manga, otaku”. Absolutely wrong: otaku identifies intense consumers of Japanese popular media and, while sometimes such media is of an erotic nature, ‘otaku’ never does and never has identified a genre, of manga or otherwise. ]]>http://menlopark.ca/takashi-murakami-the-meaning-of-the-nonsense-of-the-meaning/#comment-16 Fri, 03 May 2013 13:23:01 +0000http://menlopark.ca/dev/?p=142#comment-16I was quite smitten with Murakami after I saw a beautiful little box of candy that he had designed a series of collectable plastic toys for (“Superflat”). In the accompanying brochure (it also functioned as a certificate of authenticity), a short manifesto outlined the artist’s motive: the artist hoped to jump-start an art market for 20-30 somethings – a demographic with no tradition of art patronage. Art for the masses.
Very good – but I’m still not convinced. We live in a post-critical age. Warhol anticipated this. The assumptions that support the possibility of critical distance also carry a lot of problematic and elitist baggage. Warhol really did like Campbells soup. The approving popular reception of his work was almost immediate. I had a Warhol Campbells soup T-shirt when I was growing up in the 1960s. People loved it – I loved it. We loved Marilyn, Jackie, electric chairs – all of it. Warhol spectacularized the puny imaginative worlds we had accepted (cynical) and/or he simply repeated it – he gave pause…
I say he cemented irony as a necessary fixture into modern culture. Grace McQuilten is right to value reception – how art is taken up and used (regardless of me or my cohorts) matters. I’ll look forward to see what she has to say about Zittel (totally seductive design, American-artist-run: who-knew). ]]>