TAKASHI MURAKAMI (B. 1962)

'I spent nine years working in a preparatory school, where I taught the students to draw flowers. Once every two days, I would buy flowers for my lesson and make compositions for the students to work on. At the beginning, to be frank, I didn't like flowers, but as I continued teaching in the school, my feelings changed: their smell, their shape--it all made me feel almost physically sick, and at the same time I found them very 'cute'. Each one seemed to have its own feelings, its own personality. My dominant feeling was one of unease, but I liked that sensation. And these days, now that I draw flowers rather frequently; that sensation has come back very vividly. I find them just as pretty, just as disturbing. At the same time there is this strength in them; it is the strength I find when drawing the human face.'

(T. Murakami interview with Hélène Kelmachter, Takashi Murakami, Kaikai Kiki, exh. cat., Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain à Paris, Paris 2002, p. 84).