Writing for Ants

More Sandy Stone, Parts 2 & 3

I’m not going to show all 12 parts to the Sandy Stone European Graduate School talk (you can get them and many others at EGS’s YouTube page), but these next two are worth taking a few minutes out of your day.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_D7gW7ocpw&hl=en]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/v/p0x1irewyhI&hl=en]

Takashi Murakami Comes to Brooklyn

Internationally acclaimed © MURAKAMI is coming to the Brooklyn Museum starting on April 5th. Ever since I heard about his Miss Ko2 earning a cool 600k at Christie’s back in 2003, I’ve been following his work. He’s been all over the world several times, but I’ve never been at the same place as any of his exhibitions at the same time. If you haven’t heard of Murakami, then you haven’t heard the hype and the comparisons as the Japanese Andy Warhol. Never you mind about such silliness. What drew me initially to Murkami’s work is what I imagine drew many of his fans, and that is the superficial cuteness to his work. Had somebody told you that Murakami was one of the creators of Pikachu, you probably wouldn’t have been surprised (he’s not, by the way). Cuteness may be the draw, but that cute quality doesn’t last. While the colors are vibrant and the shapes are fun, a creepy quality lies on the surface, just as obvious and superficial as the adorable and innocent veneer.

The story of Murakami’s influence is that while he studied art at prestigious universities in Japan, he turned away from doctrine and towards pop culture because pop better expressed post-war Japanese culture. Otaku (a derogatory term meaning obsessive “fans” or “geeks”) became the place where Murakami began to concentrate, and so, anime and manga are central themes. But so is size. Apparently some of his sculptures are huge. Tongari-kun (pictured below) is 30 feet tall and sold for a cool 1.5 million in ‘03. Some Gothamist back pages indicate that Mr. Pointy also hung around Rockefeller Center in ‘03 (big U.S. year for Tak). Sheesh. One-and-a-half? For that, you can buy half a Carriage House in Brooklyn Heights.

But chances are good that you’ve heard of Murakami since he’s one artist who’s been so successful at doing what artists so seldom seem to successfully do: bridge the gap between branding and art. (You might remember that Louis Vuitton approached him, and they put together a line of purses where Murakami’s designs were plastered up against the side of the bags, turning what are (in my mind) generally drab and uninteresting bags into bags that are only about 85 percent drab and uninteresting).

Wait a sec, is that a purse on my blog?

Here are some pictures you can view from when Murakami was at the L.A. Museum of Contemporary Art, and given these images, April 5 promises to be an exciting trip to Prospect Park. And warm weather to boot? Picachu!

Take the 2-3 to Eastern Pkwy/Brooklyn Museum. Should be about four stops from Borough Hall. West end of the park.

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