Takashi Murakami in Vancouver

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Whimsy and social commentary mark Japanese art star Takashi Murakami’s exhibition, The Octopus Eats Its Own Leg. The Vancouver Art Gallery snagged this coup, a blockbuster retrospective of 59 sculptures and paintings, for the show’s only Canadian stop in a three-city North American tour.

The title? The octopus does indeed eat its own leg in order to survive when it is diseased or injured. And, likewise, Murakami wants to withstand the vagaries of mass popularity and critical approval. “It’s a self-deprecating reference,” he says. “I’m constantly repeating ideas and characters from old paintings, morphing them into something that looks new but is really recycled.”

Ever the jokester, Murakami plays down his own importance. The exhibition, which continues until May 26, is arranged chronologically. Visitors can trace Murakami’s progression for themselves, starting with monochromatic Nihonga works, traditional Japanese paintings on paper, and moving through colour-field painting and Pop Art. He includes his cartoonish alter ego, Mr. DOB, a mercurial Japanese Mickey Mouse who bares his teeth in Klein’s Pot A but becomes cute and benign when printed on T-shirts.

Riotous colour in the Superflat style anchors the exhibition. The term was coined by Murakami to refer to the flat, two-dimensional imagery found in manga and anime, early influences in his life. In a broader sense, it refers to the levelling between high and low art. Murakami sees no difference between the two, and calls the Western penchant for separating them rigid and pretentious.

His Superflat-era paintings are people pleasers. Tan Tan Bo Puking – a.k.a. Gero Tan is a frenzy of movement and colour. Flowers, flowers, flowers is more controlled, subdued and, well, happy. Nearby, a wall is devoted to his commercial enterprises, notably Graduation, his cover art for a Kanye West album, and a medium-sized aluminum and carbon-fibre sculpture called Kanye Bear, which commands attention.

Murakami makes no apologies for mixing art and commercialism. He says he wants to make art accessible to everyone. He has designed logos for Louis Vuitton handbags and has even established a Warhol-style factory, Kaikai Kiki, outside Tokyo. It functions as his studio, a manufacturing centre for products, and an incubator for other artists. He has a huge Instagram following and hangs out with celebrities. When asked why his career has so many facets, Murakami says he likes the excitement and wants the same recognition Western artists enjoy. “I’m Japanese. I come from the East. That’s why I have to do something different.”

With Release Chakra’s gate at this instant, Murakami shies away from cartoon characters in favour of darker forms. His 100 Arhats (in Buddhist culture, an arhat is a perfected person, one who has achieved nirvana) and its sister, 69 Arhats Beneath the Bodhi Tree, are long, panelled installations. Murakami no longer paints on canvas. Instead, he feeds his sketches into a computer so they can be printed on paper or reproduced on silkscreen. The silkscreen images are then transferred onto canvas and mounted on board. A video tucked away in one of the gallery’s recesses explains the process.

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Takashi Murakami, "Embodiment of 'A'," 2014

Takashi Murakami, "Embodiment of 'A'," 2014

fibre-reinforced plastic, stainless steel, zelkova wood and acrylic (courtesy of the artist and Blum & Poe, Los Angeles/New York/Tokyo ©2014 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. all rights reserved; photo by Andrea Rossetti)

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Takashi Murakami, "Embodiment of 'Um'," 2014

Takashi Murakami, "Embodiment of 'Um'," 2014

fibre-reinforced plastic, stainless steel, zelkova wood and acrylic (courtesy of the artist and Blum & Poe, Los Angeles/New York/Tokyo ©2014 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. all rights reserved; photo by Andrea Rossetti)

Murakami’s most recent works, such as Isle of the Dead, have evolved once again. The characters, now demonic and grotesque, are worked into the totality of the painting. This motif carries through to two tall Fiberglas and stainless steel sculptures, Embodiment of “Um” and Embodiment of “A.”

Despite mushroom-shaped clouds, a frequent motif in his work, and his alarm with the 2011 Fukushima nuclear crisis, Murakami says he’s not political. “My personal belief is that an artist really doesn’t have that much power to change the current moment,” he says. “For me, it’s more about the audience in the future – 50, 100 years from now. Whether it can have a direct impact on society now, that’s not something I expect I can do. But I think I can sneak in some messages for a future audience.”

Not political? It’s clear Murakami cares deeply about what’s going on in the world. With Polyrhythm, a 1991 resin and stainless steel construction, he targets images of violence and war, especially in products aimed at children. “Our society’s paradox is that we create plastic toy models that create a background for aggression and murder,” he says. Small plastic soldiers mounted against a dull olive ground are in sharp contrast to the joyous and whimsical pieces that make up the bulk of the show. But it confirms Murakami as an important artist with complexity and contradictions. ■

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