The Hysteria of This Flower Explained | Behind The HYPE: Murakami’s Flowers

[Music] kanye west album covers kid cody's chains drake's hoodies and an art basil art piece with pharrell takashi morikami's beaming multicolored flowers are everywhere and that's just a few since the first murakami flowers artworks debuted in 1995 the flowers have steadily taken over fashion benbolo jewelry porter bags and a thorpion watch all sport the now iconic smiling flower and the takashi murkami and louis vuitton collaboration which drew heavily on the flowers lasted almost two decades more recently a flowery supreme and takashi murakami box logo raised over 1 million u.s dollars for covet 19 relief the flower is a very important in a japanese traditional painting that's why i made my style of the raw stuff murakami flowers have surpassed the reach of fashion too you can spot them in even the most far-flung environments artworks and sculptures at the palace of versailles in 2010 google's homepage for the 2011 summer solstice and at the macy's day parade later that year when murakami dressed full head-to-toe flower regalia while prince of his flower paintings sell in the thousands and paintings can reach millions at auction murakami's flowers have well transcended the art world steadily taking over each and every corner of pop culture the flowers simultaneously embody mass consumption luxury pop art even resilience in the face of destruction this is how murakami's flowers became one of the most desirable and popular symbols of the 21st century behind the hype murakami flower [Music] oh why many celebrities many high luxury brands want to use the flower thing my answer is i don't know [Music] murakami joined with louis vuitton in 2003 for a partnership that went on to last 13 years the longest in the brand's history murakami's flowers found a new canvas on women's shoes silk scarves and even the brand's sacred monogram bags you might credit his extensive work with lv and his close relationship with then creative director mark jacobs for bringing murakami flowers to center stage and sparking the craze which continued to dominate the 2010s murakami has since caught the eyes of some of fashion's most exciting brands all in search of his signature flowers the artist poured his long time love for vans and once again his flowers into a limited edition graphic tees and skate decks for the brand in 2015 as well as a spin on vans classic slip-on an artist's collaboration between murakami and virgil ablo in 2018 resulted in gallery shows including a range of paintings sculptures t-shirts prints and a murakami leather tote bag screen printed with flowers and ablo's signature script in 2019 his work with readymade brought the flowers to shorts and cushions crafted with military wool textile and earlier that year morikami also snagged a collaboration with moma in the form of plushed pillows murakami's flowers also have cosines from some of music's biggest names beyond the now iconic visuals from kanye west's 2007 album graduation and the upcoming animated television show kid see ghosts with west and kid cudi murakami's flowers got prime placement and a collaboration with ovo in 2018 which blended the flower motif with the ovo owl murakami also released a merchandise collaboration with billy eilish for uniqlo incorporating the flowers and visuals from the 2019 music video for you should see me in a crown directed by murakami you should see me in it eilish destroys the city as a humanoid spider and the flowers are unfortunate casualties wilting as their smiles fade the destruction of the flowers especially when their grins turn to sadness is actually quite shocking on the surface takashi murakami's use of the flowers cartoonish eyeballs bright colors mushrooms and childlike characters like the infamous mr dob make his work seem unconditionally happy and joyful but there are deeper and darker undertones within these works if you take a closer look at the flowers for instance there are hidden tiers when i get this idea is when i was moved to the new york city and i had a very strong homesick because i'm a very loneliness the inspiration behind murakami's flowers motif came from his studies of nahunga or traditional japanese style painting one of the subjects in nohunga is setsugetsuka which translates to snow moon flowers murakami attempted to paint flowers in his tradition but he instead painted 50 flowers each on a stem with two to three leaves and the morikami flower was born as to the flower's smiles murakami himself explained that the collective trauma of the bombings created layers of oppressed and at times contradictory emotions on one hand a sense of powerlessness played out in cute kawaii characters like mr daub and on the other a fascination with power and destruction explored in the mushrooms and skulls which often appear alongside the flowers in murakami's works the violence of the billy eilish video especially the decimation of the flowers doesn't seem so far off now murakami is known to blend influences from andy warhol and otaku culture a japanese term for young outsiders obsessed with computers nuclear catastrophe and sci-fi anime to the detriment of their social skills he blurs the lines between japanese subculture western art practices and the complicated history between them to create deeply covetable and contradictory pop art perhaps best exemplified by the murakami flowers and as much as murakami has taken over pop culture at large his foothold in the art world remains stronger than ever in 2019 a massive exhibition in hong kong titled murakami vs murakami filled an entire room with huge flower sculptures and flower works on the walls ceilings and floors murakami has also used the runway success of the flowers to support various charitable causes including a clothing capsule with pangea in support of world v day and a print sale to benefit the black lives matter movement has raised over 1.3 million us dollars with the flowers murakami built a bridge between consumers and fine art high fashion and street wear the flowers became an important vehicle for murakami's rise in the fashion industry and in many ways sparked the now commonplace practice of collaborative collections between artists and fashion brands his work with musical artists and landmark cultural institutions has brought his work to a broader audience these much more public installations and artworks combined with his approach to merchandise print sales and auction paintings is uniquely democratic by creating multiple entry points to owning and interacting with his work he shows that the murakami flowers are not just for the elusive few but for the many so how to make sense of the flowers origins their cheery demeanor and aesthetic simply hides a far darker undercurrent of trauma and violence but perhaps that paradox is by design the flowers operate as sort of a trojan horse the now pervasive symbol has carried an important story to the mass market the runway and the art world to claim the lesson is even the cutest blossoming packages might be more complicated than meets the eye behind the hype murakami flower [Music] you

Channel: HYPEBEAST

Views: 1,016,458

Rating: 4.9603915 out of 5

Keywords: hypebeast, behind the hype, takashi murakami, drake, kanye west, kid cudi, travis scott, j balvin, murakami flower, vox, new york times, billie eilish, ben baller, moma, fine art, andy warhol, documentary, pharrell williams, art basel, tokyo, kaikai kiki

Id: zPkAQCdXcLc

Length: 7min 34sec (454 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 20 2020