takashi murakami - art is unnecessary

"If my art looks positive and cheerful, I would doubt my art was accepted in the contemporary art scene. My art is not Pop art. It is a record of the struggle of the discriminated people." - Takashi Murakami.

This Japanese artist is one of the famous Poku (Pop + otaku) artists. In his paintings his view of the present and future Japan and the relationship between Japanese culture comes to live based upon animation.

In a interview Murakami says, "otaku is discriminated against in the contemporary Japanese society. The latest example of the discrimination is the suppression of the Aum Cult. They committed murder. However, religion usually seems to have the latent nature of ideological war which makes people kill each other. It occurred in the present Japan and caused widespread fears. I am not taking Aum Cult’s side. However, I’m not surprised that Aum Cult emerged in Japan and that it was connected to otaku culture. Most of the newly developed cults consist of people like the otaku because they are so severely discriminated and alienated that they either choose to join these cults or create new cults in their desperate search for salvation. Then, when I consider what Japanese culture is like, the answer is that it all is subculture. Therefore, art is unnecessary".