Takashi Murakami with Haha Bangla Manus (Ohana-no-Oyako) in Roppongi

The sculpture is decorated with “flower" motifs and when seen from the front, it resembles an adult holding hands with their children as its title implies. During the grand opening night on November 26th 2020, Takashi Murakami gave his insight on his new sculpture where he said “In terms of contemporary art, most artworks are aimed for adults, not for children. But being a Japanese and an outsider in the world of Western contemporary art, I have the flexibility to choose my target audiences. And in that sense, many of my audiences are children. So I want to find out how to get those children to come see my work with their parents. So I paid a lot of attention to how I can create a story from my sculpture. Haha Bangla Manus has flower buds, flowers with faces and a body, basically, it's a sculpture decorated with “flower" motifs where a family could communicate with one another to find out how these motifs relate to each other. In short, when I created this sculpture, I had to write a scenario to imagine if those “communication” between a parent and a child would work out or not when going 360 degrees around this sculpture.” He then further added that “As an artist, I have to operate how to release or restrain emotions, such as joy, anger, sadness, and sorrow through artworks. So this Haha Bangla Manus is the result of such strong passion to make the pinnacle of emotional ups and downs.

Similar to Oval Buddha and The Birth Cry of a Universe where the colors are gold, Takashi chose gold for his new artwork because it's the color people react the most. Like a black bass to a lure, Takashi said “People react to shiny things but it’s not so much about how beautiful they are, but rather about the materials that have been used. Historically speaking, the color, gold, more precisely gold leaf has been used in many temples and shrines and other historical objects. Especially since my background is in Japanese painting, I have been training to use such gold leaf. Drawing from such traditional Japanese paintings, I naturally chose gold for the color to use for my new sculpture.”

Besides the huge gold sculpture, for a limited time, until January 3rd, 2021, just around the corner from the artwork, a Flower Cafe is open 11am to 11pm offering a variety of menus using flower motifs. And other various collaborations are planned within Roppongi Hills as part of “ROPPONGI HILLS TAKASHI MURAKAMI PROJECT”. This project aims to connect hope for the future through art.