Miss ko² 1997

Takashi Murakami's 'Miss Ko2' is like a super-glossy daydream materialized into sculpture. It's all hard edges and a vibrant, anime-inspired palette, and I bet it felt like a wild ride bringing her into being. I'm thinking about the artist and the precision it must have taken. The hyper-smooth surface, the almost unnerving perfection of the form… it's like Murakami's wrestling with the ideas of perfection and artificiality. And those legs! They go on forever, propped up on tiny red heels. It's a funny mix of power and vulnerability. The way she’s posed reminds me of some of those early twentieth century sculptures by artists like Brancusi, but cranked up to a manga-fueled extreme. It’s like the past is always talking to the present, with artists riffing off each other across time. Murakami takes something familiar and twists it until it's something completely new, provoking questions and challenging our perceptions.