Murakami Takashi's new work revealed

03.04.2009 by Patrick W. Galbraith

I was invited to the special sneak preview of Murakami Takashi's new sculpture at the Kaikai Kiki gallery in Hiroo on Thursday night. As seen in the , it is a deformed little robot boy. His name is Inochi. Despite his noted facination with otaku, Murakami says the work this time has nothing to do with otaku, but is rather a "pure expression of Japanese." As always, this follows a very loose definition of "Japanese," based on eclectic US and domestic pop-culture references:

1) The lttle robot boy from "A.I." is the inspiration; apparently Stanley Kubrick wanted to film this with a much uglier character in a Pinnochio-like tale
2) Japan has a deep history with humanoid robots, all the way from Tezuka Osamu's "Astro Boy" (Kubrick was a fan of Tezuka, says Murakami)
3) The bulbous head looks like ET
4) The robotic parts and thin frame evoke an Evangelion
5) Japanese do not like completed things, thus the imbalance
6) There is a violent and grotesque nature to Japanese cute

The list goes on, but you get the idea - various things strung together to imply some sort of meaning, whatever that is supposed to mean. The sculpture took him six years to make, and Bome was not involved. In fact, Murakami said he wants to get past his associations with the master figure maker, whose works are inextricably tied to Kaiyodo and bishojo figures. I find this particualarly amusing, as Bome's only fault is his expertise. Okada Toshio described the difference between what Bome does and "art" as a matter of meaning: Bome means to make figures that make sense to fans of characters, while art tends to make things that don't make sense and thus are "meaningful." That said, it might be that Murakami has to jettison the simple meanings of bishojo to find "meaning."

Instead of Bome, Murakami brought on board the advertising agency that created the CMs for Softbank. It reminds me more of the . In any case, Murakami again says the gags created using the Inochi character are representative of Japanese humor and sense. You be the judge.