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Cat Dossett notes on visiting:
Over the course of his career, Takashi Murakami alluded to the Japanese art historical canon in an attempt to place himself within that narrative. In Lineage of Eccentrics, the curators seem to be inviting visitors to make interpretative connections between Murakami's work and, among other pieces from its Japanese art collection, netsuke. The small, popular sculptures or figurines, carved from ivory, antler, and other materials, are a fascinating but fitting comparison. The form and context of netsuke, with their concise depictions, humor, and recognizable subjects drawn from life and cultural imagination, as well as their popularity in and outside of Japan, bear similarities to Murakami's eye-catching designs, particularly his 2009 work "Lots, Lots of Kaikai and Kiki" (acrylic and platinum leaf on canvas, mounted on aluminum frame; pictured above). Encapsulating the kaikaikiki aesthetic, both the netsuke and Murakami's works straddle the line between marketability and artistic expression. The popularity of both netsuke and Murakami's characters Kaikai and Kiki relate to their collectability, portability, and conciseness of design. Netsuke were wearable, functional objects in their iteration before evolving into okimono, which shed practicality for appreciation of form. In short, they became collectibles that caught the eyes of Japanese and foreign buyers. Murakami's subjects fall into that latter category that elevates visual allure over functionality. While his Kaikai and Kiki characters have appeared in animations and even parade balloons, their primary purpose is not to fasten tobacco or medicine pouches to one's obi like netsuke, or some other practical function, but rather to convey the concept of innocence and the kaikaikiki -"dangerous yet appealing"-aesthetic. Clever and sweet yet odd in appearance, both netsuke and Murakami's Kaikai and Kiki characters appropriate familiar subjects like yokai, monsters, and other creatures and objects from nature to create singular, appealing forms. Human faces wearing rabbit or bear hoods adorn a bed of flowers in Murakami's work; the netsuke on display at the MFA, meanwhile, convey humor in carvings like the netsuke "in the shape of Bodhidharma (Daruma) with a whisk as a beard" and other subjects that make use of animals from nature. Netsuke are composed of precious materials like ivory as well as more common media like deer antlers; in the same way, Murakami combines acrylics with platinum lead in "Lots, Lots of Kaikai and Kiki." There are efforts, too, to distribute both designs. Portable, netsuke are meant to be displayed and admired; in the same vein, Murakami's characters appear on merchandise that disseminate the artist's brand, so to speak, worldwide. Related is the conciseness of the objects' and characters' forms, a quality that has much to do with the success of netsuke and Murakami's Kaikai and Kiki. While unusual, the images are not overly complex, and so they are easy to discern at a glance. Is the MFA's comparison of Murakami's work to netsuke wholly accurate? While they bear similar traits, they may not represent a direct lineage like the one that Murakami constructs between himself and the eccentrics of the Edo period. Instead, the artist may have been influenced by the artistic climate by which netsuke and, later, okimono were molded, one that has evolved into the present era of artistic production and marketing. _ _ Cat Dossett is an illustrator and writer based in Boston, MA. She is Chapbooks Editor of Pen & Anvil Press and has two chapbooks of her own: Laika, about the first dog in space, and Vessel, a slice-of-life comic about a break-up. Her illustrations and writing appear in New England Review of Books, Burn, and Hawk & Whippoorwill. Find her on social media at @aboutadaughter. |
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ISSN 2150-6795 |