Provenance: Provenance: SBI Auction Tokyo, Japan. July 2019. Lot 452

ABOUT THE WORK

This particular piece entitled Time-Bokan, with the word bokan meaning airship or aircraft, is a seminal illustration by Murakami that depicts the horrors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings as well as the deep-seated collective fears and trauma of the Japanese people. Though Time-Bokan is not necessarily a unique piece given that Murakami has reproduced and reprinted the piece several times, Murakami has adopted the reproduction process as an integral part of the piece’s intention, message, and theme. Murakami applies Warhol’s philosophy of repetition, wherein by constantly reproducing a piece, one also reproduces the work’s message. Thus, what makes TimeBokan’s deeply profound and macabre message even more arresting is the fact that one does not only confront the image once, but several times.