[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqaXxSBZTZc&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0]

While I was uploading my Louis Vuitton/Solari video on Youtube for an earlier post, I discovered a series of anime by Takashi Murakami that involves the LV trademark monogram.  The anime are all breezy, magical, and cute.

Last year, the Brooklyn Museum put on a retrosepctive show of Takashi Murakami’s work.   The show titled “© MURAKAMI” introduced a cast of trippy, infantile and erotic characters.  The bubble-head character with its 10 or so stretching hands, reminding me of a Indian-buddhist deity, was three-storey tall.  The life-size female robot folds herself into a spacecraft like a transformer toy (as seen in different poses in the back).

The show also illustrated the seamless juxtaposition of fantasy art and luxury merchandising.  Separate from the museum souvenir store, a counter was installed in the middle of the exhibition space for selling LV/TM special edition handbags and accessories.  How can the Japanese (and anime fans) not fall in love with this brand ?

 

For another video of this series and more pictures from the LV/TM exhibition, go to this post on the Louis Vuitton Superflat monogram.