Jellyfish Eyes- black2

又圓又亮帶著長長睫毛的可愛眼睛，是村上隆的招牌標誌之一，在他和Louis Vuitton的合作中也可見到；靈感來自於日本漫畫人物眼睛總是又圓又大，看似可愛，其實在嘲諷越來越膚淺浮面的大眾文化，扁平而且欠缺深度。 村上隆首部執導電影《水母眼睛》即是取材自此，故事背景設定在311地震後的日本，主要在探討環保議題。

The round-eyed and long-lashed jellyfish eyes are one of the iconic Takashi Murakami motifs; the artist uses the eyes that resemble those of the charaters in Japanese comic books to mock the superficial culture of modern day.

Takashi has later produced the same-named film, setting the backgrond of which in the Japan after the 311 earthquake, in an attempt to look into the environmental issues.

「身為藝術家，我可以療癒眾人，而現在我想這是藝術最重要的意義」-村上隆

"As an artist, I can heal people. Now, I feel art is just about healing." - Takashi Murakami

「在我踏進藝術界時，人們將我的作品當作金錢遊戲，也因此我的作品總繞著"什麼是資本主義"這個問題打轉;藝術與行銷似乎本來就是緊緊相連的。曾經有一段時間我的作品並不被廣泛地接受，而這個現像至今仍並無太多改變，只是現今中國藝術牆是入主了世界舞台。之後，日本發生了311大地震以及福島和災，這些事件讓我重新開始思考藝術之於人類的意義，而我也不在能將金錢遊戲以及資本主義作為我創作主題的中心。如果不具藝術訓練的人也覺得可以理解我的作品，我想我可以與他們分享我的想法，而這也成為我創作的主要主題。

即便以全球藝術的面像來說，這仍然是一個與日本本地緊緊相連的主題，日本的觀眾所追求的並非「喔這個不錯」的經驗。當我再想要如何將想法傳遞給孩子們時，我想現在並不是創作為繞黑暗主題的藝術品的時後，或許當日本好起來的時候我會在開始思考這些概念。」                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

-村上隆

"When I had my debut and become famous, people saw my art as money game. So I created my art around the question,"What is capitalism?" I thought about it: art has always been linked to marketing. There was a time when I marketed my art and didn't get a good reaction. I couldn't play the game. It's the same thing now. Chinese art burst onto the scene. After that, there was the earthquake and the tsunami. Those natural disasters birthed in me a desire to understand spirituality. When I consider what art means to humanity, capitalism and money game can no longer be the main theme of my work. Even people who don't have a knowledge of art find me accessible. I feel I can share something with them. That has become the main theme of my work. Even in a global art context, it is a very local theme. [A Japanese audience] is not looking for an 'Oh, that was nice' experience. For example, when celebrities like AKB48 go to console the children[displaced by Fukushima], they cry, because they can no longer express normal emotions. They've had to internalize so much that when they no longer have to, all of their emotions come rushing out. When I think about how to communicate with children, I feel like now is not the time to express dark artistic concepts. Maybe when things get better [in Japan] I might start thinking about thoses concepts again. As an artist, I can heal people. Now, I feel art is just about healing."

- Takashi Murakami