Takashi Murakami is a prolific contemporary Japanese artist who works in both fine arts media, such as painting, as well as digital and commercial media. Murakami attempts to blur the boundaries between high and low art. He appropriates popular themes from mass media and pop culture, then turns them into thirty-foot sculptures, "Super-flat" paintings, or marketable commercial goods such as figurines or phone caddies. Murakami is also the founder and President of the art management company, Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd.
History with the Macy's Parade[]
Takashi Murakami made his Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade debut in 2010, when his characters Kaikai and Kiki were transformed into giant novelty balloons for the Blue Sky Gallery, a collection of balloons that combines contemporary art with Macy's signature balloons. Murakami was one of the artists that Macy’s sought out when the Blue Sky Gallery first began in 2005, and he had been in contact with the Parade team since 2008. However, at that time he was preparing for a retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum in New York, and was unable to help with the process.[1]
Murakami reached out to Macy’s in 2010 to notify them that he wanted to create new balloons of Kaikai and Kiki for that year’s Parade. He explained that the characters “in many ways represent the aesthetic philosophy behind my work. They are cute, yet fearsome. Modern and yet connected to the past. They embodied eccentric beauty.”[1]
Vice president of Macy's Parade Studio at the time, John Piper, expressed his concerns with the design of the characters, particularly with their gigantic heads and teeny-tiny limbs, worrying that they may not be able to achieve free lift, meaning “that there’s enough helium inside of the balloon to not only compensate for its weight but to make it fly.” After exchanging sketches with Murakami, Piper met up with the artist to finalize the details of the balloon’s maquettes, and ensure that the balloons would fly correctly.
The Kaikai and Kiki balloons were constructed by the Aerostar division of the Sioux Falls-based Raven International. Like their past sculptural incarnations, Kaikai, the white, rabbit-like character, possesses long ears and a round, adorable face, while Kiki, the character in pink, has a more fantastical appearance, complete with three eyes and protruding fangs. As they fly down the Parade route, the balloons are posed with heads high and arms and legs thrust out in a joyful expression. At three-stories tall and 40-feet long, the balloons were the largest renditions of Kaikai and Kiki to date.[2]
Takashi Murakami himself joined the balloons as they travelled down the Parade route, wearing a costume of his own design on a specially-made toy float.[3] The Kaikai and Kiki balloons made only one appearance in the 2010 Parade, and were subsequently retired. They were last confirmed to exist through a balloon inventory chart in November 2016.[4]
See also[]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 https://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/25/arts/design/25murakami.html
- ↑ A Ballooning Spectacle - Macy's press release, November 2010
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYIG6YF48TY
- ↑ https://kadamsbaum.smugmug.com/Macys-Photos/Macys-Studio-Tour-Nov-15-2016/i-tfL7Xrh/A