I open wide my eyes but I see no scenery.
I fix my gaze upon my heart .
This is the sort of direction that Murakami is going these days--incorporating aspects of trauma in nihonga-style hybrid painting. The New York Times says that Murakami is returning to traditional Japanese art, but I don't think that is entirely true. Murakami has always said that his question is exploring why Japan is a nation of infantilized adults (his formulation!) and towards that end he is looking back further historically than he has before. If the NYT wants to believe that Murakami is reverting to the tired cliche of a Japanese artist producing "traditional" works that express his love of nature and harmony, they are seriously missing the point. That is a wag of my finger, New York Times!
Note that he uses a variation of the eye that all his cartoon characters have, and the robe of the man is actually a map of the Japanese islands.
No comments:
Post a Comment