Takashi Murkami Layering Investigation

Layering Investigation

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About the artist

This week, I decided to investigate the Japanese artist Takashi Murakami. He uses the process of layering, taking parts of one piece of art and mixing it with various other art pieces in a unique way, to make his paintings.

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Open Your Hands Wide, Embrace Happiness by Takashi Murakami

Looking further

Takashi Murkami uses layering in his art to add depth to his various pieces. He mixes traditional Japanese art, such as Buddhist icons and symbols, with modern Japanese art, such as the psychedelic flowers, smiley faces, and skulls, together to create his various art pieces.

Murkami uses this layering technique to bombard the viewer with lots of different, yet visually similar, images. This results in the viewer feeling mostly overwhelmed, and this overwhelmed feeling results in the viewer having difficulty focusing in on one object.

Kaikai Kiki and Me by Takashi Murakami

The overwhelming nature of Murkami's works also means that, with proper setup, the background could either be ignored completely, as it is completely random (like Kaikai and Me found right), or it can be the focal part of the art piece (like Open Your Hands Wide, Embrace Happiness found above)

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Answers to questions

1. What have you learned about Layering?
• I have learned that Layering can result in, as stated above, objects either standing out or being ignored in their entirety
2. How do contemporary artists use the concept of Layering in their artwork?
• Contemporary artists can use the concept of layering to make objects in the foreground of busy scenes and pieces pop out against what is in the background.
3. How might you be able to use Layering in your own art?
• I may be able to create Layering in my 3D by placing random objects in the background with the subject/ object of interest in the foreground.
4. Is there something that you found in your investigation that specifically interested or inspired you?
• I found it interesting how Murkami was able to use the visualy similar objects and images in the background to make the view feel overwhelmed, thus having them focus on the part of the piece that is not the same as the others. I would like to try this out in 3D somehow (image or animation perhaps).