Interview

Warhol/Silver, 2009.Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
Courtesy Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris.

It's generally regarded as simplistic to call Takashi Murakami the "Japanese Andy Warhol." Murakami's puns on pop art are so deliberate as to be readily identified as red herrings, and exclude the themes of labor and ethnography.

Of course Murakami encourages the comparison, and by way of so emphatically insisting that there is no difference between himself and Warhol, demonstrates there are a few difference—and the conditions why that must be so. Murakami's latest solo show at Emanuel Perrotin in Paris, of works he calls "Self-Portraits," includes several pieces that are direct homage to Warhol himself. Two large tondos face each other; titled "Warhol/Silver" and "Warhol/Gold," they even make reference by title, and feature Murakami's signature, saccharine, anime characters. But Murakami gets its all wrong, conflating Warhol's flower series with his Gold Marilyns, and rendering all of it an artful pastiche. That same abstract gold and silver background is also a reference to the 19th Century Nihonga style, itself an industrialized interpretation of tradition Japan. "I Recall The Time When My Feet Lifted Off The Ground, Ever So Slightly—Kôrin—Chrysanthemum," depicts flowers as classical Japanese engravings, over creates a paint-splattered background equal parts samurai flick and woodblock print. Caricature and mass-produced posters are folded into one shiny whole.

It's the repetition and the interest in merging business and art along the lines of mass production—that so echo Warhol. Warhol would have loved the Murakami for Louis Vuitton—even if they were limited edition. But with contemporary Japan as his context, Murakami demonstrates the rise of mass customization over mass production, and the reincarnation of repetition as a type of uniqueness in art.


"Takashi Murakami Paints Self-Portraits" is on view through October 16. Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin is located at 76 Rue de Turenne and 10 Impasse Saint Claude, 75003 Paris.

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Photos byGéraldine Dormoy


The French have a passion for David Lynch: after winning the Palme d'Or in 1990, the director was also awarded the César for best foreign film twice, and the prestigious Legion d'Honneur in 2007. So, it is hardly surprising that his opening for "Machines, Abstraction and Women" at the Galeries Lafayette, which combine window display and a show at the department store's gallery, looked more like a moshpit than a civilized gathering of cinema connoisseurs.

At the entrance of the large Hausmanian building, hundreds of fans and journalists—not to mention an impressive number of French actors—gathered in joint hysteria to see the famed director make an appearance. The evening began with a slow tour conducted by Lynch et al., briefly presenting each of the 11 window displays he created. These comprised papier-maché extensions of his elegantly morbid films, the displays from  "Machines, Abstraction and Women"  stay true to the title of the show, combining Tim Burton-esque machineries (with a slight S&M touch) and women (or in some cases, elements of women's bodies), all of which float in abstract space, complete with stage-lighting and sound effects.

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Scott Schuman (The Sartorialist) launched his blog in 2005 with daily photographs of eccentric fishmongers and fashion editors. That snapshot procedure has enhanced and expanded with Schuman's audience (and his comments!) and has culminated in a new book, The Sartorialist (Penguin).  Schuman launched his book Saturday at Colette, chaperoned by girlfriend and fellow street style blogger, Garance Doré. A line of fans waiting to get their copy signed stretched the block in the polished rue Saint Honoré—the mix of blasé Parisians, trans-continental hipsters, and teenage girls with their older siblings drew startled gazes from the well-groomed locals, and typical bedazzlement from the tourists.

"I wasn't looking for stars or trends, I've never been interested in celebrities," Shuman explained at his signing. But he admits he does have a great eye for market people and a knack for catching recognizable front-row faces on the street. Having spent 15 years working in sales and marketing for luxury brands in New York, Schuman initially was drawn to photograph the field he knew best, menswear. He clicked away, documenting diaristically his haphazard sartorial encounters. At the time of The Sartorialist's inception, blogs were primarily text-based, he said, "I had no idea if people were going to like the concept, but I thought, there is nothing to lose... Worst comes to worst, I'll pretend it wasn't me, it doesn't have my name anywhere." Indeed, even if Schuman sometimes appears on his own blog and speaks in his own voice, "The Sartorialist" as a moniker  retains "a certain vagueness" he appreciates.

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Still featuring Astrova, from Purple Knife's video for "Cafeteria Crematorium"

Aliina Astrova is a writer, curator, performer, and musician, combining all of the above in simultaneous expressions that involve video, publications, installations, photographic work and experimental soundtracks in a neo-psychedelic approach. She is also the founder of a multimedia nomadic gallery The Ceylan Projects, and the leading force in the experimental band Purple Knife. Not bad for a 20 year old.

Evidently precocious, Aliina grew up in Talinn, Estonia, although she works from home in Stoke Newington, in London's East End. She started her career as a would-be art activist by getting involved with the more challenging school projects that lead to her working with various performance art centers and putting on concerts. "I was just a kid running around and helping out," she says, "But I was already assisting the organization of contemporary dance projects when I was 15." In 2006,  she moved to London to study for a bachelors degree in Art Criticism and Curating at Central Saint Martins, and found herself going well beyond the study of theory to active involvement on the London Art scene, working on music events at the ICA, and managing art projects at the Innovation Centre Gallery.

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