And more, the objects point to the artist’s personal vocabulary-baby bottles, musical culture and '80s vintage movie posters. Elements of badminton, weights and darts hint to the leisure games we play and gamble (accentuating the origin and purpose of the graphics). Each work shows a “party” scene-but it is unclear what has been played out a knocked over chessboard, scattered dollar bills, a half empty glass of wine. The product placement here points to the allure of hyper-reality, signaling how synthetic images invade our visual surroundings. In Bullseye, a blue screen is the backdrop for a disparate collection of objects: stacked pills, empty pill bottles, blue dice and a failed game of darts. His process is an amateur’s personal immersion and examination of the “new normal”-a cinematic and brutal HD. The product of Murata’s trademark DIY high tech vocabulary, these contemporary still lives conjure at once Pixar’s Toy Story, Salvador Dali’s The Persistence of Memory, and the online 3D game Phosphor Beta 2.īy juxtaposing the high-end digital fidelity of Hollywood and video gaming industries with found underground methods, Murata’s “folk” versions appear as the leftovers of everyday life-the crumbs left behind. Using the Open Source model of production, Murata creates digital pictorial spaces hovering between waking life and the dream world, i.e. Without access to a Hollywood animation studio, Murata relies on a shared knowledge from the online community including YouTube tutorials. The objects have either been immaculately sculpted through computer programs or purchased as ready-mades from 3D web malls. His images display the technological innovations that invade our 21st century lives: sports drinks, antidepressants, Apple products, brand- name snacks, and exercise equipment. Beyond a tech whiz fan base, Murata engages the art history buff with a constructed world of hyper real interiors and still lives. This exhibition introduces seven large-scale digital prints, alongside a new video work.įamous for his pioneering “data mosh” and abstract videos, whose style reverberated on MTV and the net for the past decade, Murata's new work uses his trademark application of homemade technology.
Salon 94 Bowery presents Takeshi Murata’s long awaited first show in New York, entitled Synthesizers.