Murakami at The Geffen Contemporary

by chris cunningham

A few months ago I was talking with Carlos at work and he had a large art book on his desk. All it said was Murakami but apparently I’ve been under a rock for the last twenty five years because I hadn’t heard of him and he’s quite popular. Carlos tells me, “oh, you’ll love him, go check out the show.” Hmmm… So I walked back to my desk to do a little internetty searching on him and come to find out Liza had just bookmarked the Murakami show minutes before. Weird. She likes him too. Looks like we’ll be going to the show when she gets here!

Well, today was the day. After the aborted attempt two days ago of course. Fortunately it wasn’t too crowded and we got right in. Did I like it? “Not all of it” is probably the best answer. I liked the all the happy flowers and wallpapers, but the more anime style things not so much. We stopped in the museum store and Liza picked up a little plush Murakami doll. It has teeth and bites. It’s strangely cute with it’s one eye bigger than the other.

Afterwards we walked across the street to Little Tokyo and strolled through the stores where Liza also picked up a plush Totoro. I’m not sure I believe what kind of animal he’s supposed to be. I started feeling sick again but we stayed for a little while longer and watched a crowd form outside of Shabu Shabu restaurant. Hmmmm…must investigate. Very popular. Something good is happening there.