Art News: Assistants to Murakami Show Off Sexy Pop Art in France
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Takashi Murakami, who is called Japan's Andy Warholare set to wow France from this weekend with a new exhibition mixing manga inspiration with provocative eroticism. Chiho Aoshima, Aya Takano and a colleague known only as "Mister" are to show their eclectic sculptures, animations and sketches in the Contemporary Art Museum in Lyon, eastern France, in a display running to the end of the year. Their works are all the result of Kaikai Kiki L.L.C., an art production and management organization founded by Murakami to develop his art and promote that of other Japanese post-modernists. "Compared to those of my generation, the artists on show here are much freer than I was. I had to fight through barriers and obstacles because I never had the same relationship with the West," said Murakami, 43, as he presented the exhibition on Sept. 24. Prolific and distinctive, Murakami's art has surfed on the growing interest worldwide in works that take almost childishly simple iconography and wraps it in ironic stabs at consumerism, sex and society. His most famous works feature almost-nude cartoon-like figurines in acts that would be bordering on obscene if it weren't for their flourish and the interpretations they provoke. He has also ladled irony upon irony by designing with Marc Jacobs a multi-colored handbag for the French luxury goods retailer Louis Vuitton that fetches thousands of dollars. Murakami's three assistants showing in France are furthering his school with their works. Takano, 30, has set out cartoon images of impossibly idealized young womena standard in Japan's mangaswho are deployed in erotic poses, some of them explicit. They are strongly reminiscent of a tradition known as "Shunga," which resembles Chinese erotic sketches from the 14th to 16th centuries that had influence on later Japanese artists. "My designs aim to reconcile traditional hand-drawn art with modern imagery," she said. "The challenge for me is to say that this is Japan today." "Mister" dominates the next room in the museum with his own images and sculptures, which are in direct descent from mangas, replete with characters with huge eyes, in which can be seen incredibly detailed miniatures. "I draw or I sculpt mainly children, and the different scenes that can be seen here in their eyes symbolize hope," he said. The last room, given over to Aoshima's works, has its walls and floor covered by an enormous wall-papered fresco. Dotted around are five synchronized plasma screens playing an animation called City Glow, in which an empty bucolic landscape little by little is transformed into a cemetery filled with zombies. Apocalyptic, perhaps, but not meant to be pessimistic, the artist said. "I feel better when I'm in nature and that's why there often aren't people in my works," she said. Copyright 2006 Agence France Presse
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