Born February 1st 1962, Takashi Murakami is a Japanese artist working in a wide array of mediums. Painting, sculpture, fashion and animation are his main forms of expression. Coining the term ‘superflat’, inspired by traditional Japanese art, Murakami’s paintings adopt a more conceptual and pop art take on the style. Born in Tokyo Murakami strived to become an animator inspired by his love for anime and manga. He studied at the ‘Tokyo University of the Arts’ in order to attain the skill set necessary to fulfill this dream. Instead however he completed his education with a major in Nihonga, a traditional japanese style of painting. He eventually became tired by of the political world surrounding the style and sought a more contemporary approach.

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Murakami’s work includes iconic motifs (from japanese and popular culture), some of his most well known motifs include smiling flowers, unique characters, mushrooms and in the work i plan to focus on and that has inspired work the most, skulls.

In Murakami’s take on the theme Memento Mori he uses cartoon like skulls and a almost incomplete circle to symbolising the circle of life and the inevitability of death. Within Buddhism and Shinto (the most popular religions in Japan) the belief in reincarnation or at least the recycling of energy is prevalent, this may demonstrate the meaning behind the symbolism of the circle featured in Murakami’s work. This idea also translates to my work, and my experimentation with the use of biodegradable materials and the life cycle of said materials.

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A direct comparison can be made between my work and that of Murakami’s. His more colourful and satirical take has inspired my exploration of the use of materials with life cycles. Below is a further work that was inspired by the more common sybolism of death. the skull.

Although I appreciate the more pop arty style of Murakami, I am more interested in creating a work that confronts the viewer with a unmistakable ending of life. I am inspired by Murakami and the tongue and cheek way he has mastered to convey meaning through his work, and would like to instil an element of this within my own creations. My work so far has felt very face value and flat, and although Murakami is the master of the ‘Superflat technique, he has shown how a successful flat work must be. This ironically pushes me to work more 3-dimensional as I don’t feel my style lends itself to being ‘superflat’. In conclusion, the content of Murakami’s work has greatly inspired mine. However the way in which he visually represents these ideas has inspired me to do the opposite.

My most successful works are reliant on another force, this could be time, gravity or the interaction of a viewer. This is not the only element that makes these works successful, they do also have to visually stimulating. This is possibly why I am so interested in the work of Murakami. His work is instantly identifiable and captivating, an element I wish to achieve in my won work.

One way in which i could achieve this is by making use of the vibrant colours that Takashi Murakami uses in his work. Having Memento Mori themed work that uses vibrant colours seems counter intuitive but i Believe an eye catching, strikingly vibrant work would benefit my concept. Just because my theme surrounds death does not mean it has to be entirely dark and gloomy, death is the counter balance to life, and as a concept one would not exist without the other. Seeing as I am using biodegradable materials it makes sense that I make use of the array of colours that nature provides us with. I believe a sculpture/drawing/collage including flowers would be a perfect way to achieve this.