Interview

"Little Boy: The Arts of Japan's Exploding Subculture" is the third installment in the "Superflat" trilogy curated by Japan's current art superstar Takashi Murakami. Hosted by New York City's Japan Society and running through July 24, the show explores Japan's obsessive otaku (geek) subculture and its extreme fixation with things horrific (radioactive monsters, atomic apocalypse), huggable (Hello Kitty), or somewhere in between (lolicom "Lolita complex" figurines). In addition to a number of works by contemporary Jap-an-ese artists like Yoshitomo Nara and Chinatsu Ban, the show features an exhaustive array of pop-culture artifacts-toys, manga, anime, and films that address Japan's postwar cultural state of mind. On the eve of the exhibition's opening, Murakami sat down with legendary artist, activist, and rebel Yoko Ono at the Interview offices, where the two got to know each other over lunch.



Takashi Murakami: It's nice to see you for the first time.

Yoko Ono: Same here.

TM: I actually have a lot of questions for you.

YO: Well, then, please go ahead!

TM: We're familiar with your works all over the world. Sometimes you do concerts with young musicians in Japan, with peace as your message. I see that your events always lead to big movements. I always wonder how you do that.

YO: You know, honestly speaking, I think my life has always been unplanned. So when something comes along, I feel like, Why not give it a try? It's fun to experiment like that.

TM: So, would you say that there is some spontaneity in your work?

YO: Quite a lot, I'd say.

TM: When I see your work I feel like it's been well organized based on some kind of framework.

YO: Maybe there's some "framework" that I am not aware of. [laughs] What about you? How did you come to start your creative work?

TM: I started differently from everybody. Every-body else seems to have started with talent, but I didn't have any talent, which is what led me to do what I do now. I didn't start my career by doing what I really wanted to do.

YO: What do you mean?

TM: I actually wanted to become a manga artist.

YO: Why couldn't you become a manga artist?

TM: I probably didn't have enough talent for that.

YO: But you draw so well.

TM: Well, over the last few years, I've gotten quite a crash course in manga-style drawing. [both laugh]

YO: So are you saying you were doing not manga but more traditional art?

TM: Yes. When I was young, I visited New York once-

YO: What do you mean by "young"? How old were you then? Come on, you are still young! [both laugh]

TM: I was 27 or 28. And on that trip I was so stimulated by the city. I wanted to come back and base myself here, which was basically my motivation to become an artist.

YO: So you have been active here from the beginning of your career?

TM: I guess you can say the basis of my career as an artist started here. You also established your basis as an artist here in New York, right?

YO: Yes. It was in New York that my works started catching attention.

TM: Including that famous piece with a magnifying glass? ["Ceiling Painting (YES Painting)," 1966]

YO: Yes, including that one.

TM: I am a foreigner from Japan and don't speak English well, and yet I am living here in New York as an artist who must express himself.

YO: You say you don't speak English well, but you've started making your way. That's impressive, you know.

TM: I still have a long way to go with English.

YO: But you have been successful. How did you start getting known? Through painting?

TM: Yes. Galleries in the West have probably been looking for exoticism. That's the reason my paintings initially sold well, I think. And then once they started selling, people said my works were very detailed. They may have represented something Japanese to them.

YO: But you were able to sell your works from the beginning, which is impressive. Tot-ally the opposite of my case! [laughs] You said you wanted to become a manga artist, but you can still do anything you want from now on. Es-pecially now that your name is known.