Highlights from "The Studio Visit"

1. "I was taught that one of the defining premises of modern art was its antagonism to mass culture. If I wanted to be accepted more readily by the academic establishment, I could argue that Takashi is working within the system only to subvert it. But this idea of subversive complicity is growing stale, and more importantly I just don't believe it's a viable strategy." -- Scott Rothkopf.

Agreed: Subversive complicity just doesn't work. We're no longer in the age of modern art, however. Does Rothkopf mean "current fine art practice"? If so, there is no necessary antagonism as far as I can see -- at least in terms of content and/or form. An artist working today can pick and choose a relationship to mass culture -- or not. No harm, no foul.

2."What makes Takashi's art great -- and also potentially scary -- is his honest and completely canny relationship to commercial culture industries." -- Scott Rothkopf. I would say Murakami's relationship to commercial culture industries makes his work important; I'm not sure that it's "great." It's important because it makes one think about "fine art" in relation to the "commercial culture industries" and the economic conditions of art -- fine, commercial, etc. I don't think this is the sole task of art nor do I think that Murakami's practice is the only "honest" one. It 's transparent and thought-provoking and demands further reflection/discussion.

3. Takashi Murakami: "I threw out my general life, so that I can make concentration for my job." I like this.

4. "An artist is a necromancer... My mentality came from ... animation geeks. I idled my time, imagining that Japan was a Philip K. Dick world... An artist is someone who understands the border between this world and that one. Or someone who makes an effort to know it." -- Murakami. Thornton's editing of this conversation(s) is a bit confusing. Murakami seems to be saying something quite traditional about artists -- artist as necromancer, communing with spirits of the dead, influencing the future, i.e. artist as shaman, artist as spiritual guide, etc. But, then -- and here it is unclear from the editing -- does Murakami's subsequent remarks about the Philip Dick world mean that he sees the exclusive role of the artist as "understanding the border between this world" and the world of animated fantasy? It's interesting as a way of looking at his work -- shifting "the other world" from the spirit world to the fantasy world, i.e. what occupies the place of the spirit world in mass culture -- or at least for one segment of mass culture. But surely he can't be prescribing that shift to all artists. It seems more likely that his concern with "survival" as an artist and "being popular" led him to that substitution. And, again, it's quite thought-provoking.