Murakami takes graffitied Murakami billboard

In December, graffiti writers AUGER and REVOK modified a billboard advertising the wonderful Takashi Murakami exhibit at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art. Two days later, the billboard was removed. The LA Weekly now reports that Murakami himself saw online photos of the graffitied billboard and thought it to be "so wonderful, he had to have it for his collection," according to his representatives. So apparently he had it taken down and shipped to his studio in Japan. Link to LA Weekly, Link to LA MOCA's Murakami page

[#1 posted by Santa's Knee , February 5, 2008 10:01 AM]

You co-opt my stuff and I'll co-opt yours. Nice!

[#2 posted by nigelfootpowder , February 5, 2008 10:12 AM]

Did Murakami pay those guys for their work?

[#3 posted by Takuan , February 5, 2008 10:15 AM]

they gave it away

[#4 posted by Rajio , February 5, 2008 10:36 AM]

Well played Murakami. Well played.

[#5 posted by Songe , February 5, 2008 11:08 AM]

He pays the people who make his paintings about nine bucks an hour.

[#6 posted by dculberson , February 5, 2008 11:44 AM]

Nigel, in my book he "paid" them by not bringing legal charges against them.

The graffiti is pretty, though! (Graffito is? Graffiti are? Oh, never mind...)

[#7 posted by Patrick Dodds , February 5, 2008 11:57 AM]

Nice story - I like the graffiti too.

[#8 posted by Not a Doktor , February 5, 2008 11:59 AM]

Billboards are typically printed on HUGE single sheets of vinyl. You can't recycle it (yet) so after a billboard is done with they roll it up an store it in a warehouse.

(my green solution is send it to refugee areas so they can use it a as water proof tents, clothes, etc.)

[#9 posted by addictivepicasso , February 5, 2008 12:12 PM]

this story is hilarious. layer upon layer of art as commodity.

[#10 posted by weston , February 5, 2008 12:33 PM]

Swindle has a great interview with him http://swindlemagazine.com/issueicons2/takashi-murakami/

[#11 posted by snackcake , February 5, 2008 1:11 PM]

"(my green solution is send it to refugee areas so they can use it a as water proof tents, clothes, etc.)"

-- Sounds like a scene from a William Gibson book.

[#12 posted by todayinart , February 5, 2008 1:44 PM]

Does anyone know where a larger version of the image might be? I would love to get a better look at the work.

[#13 posted by Spikeles , February 5, 2008 3:59 PM]

Here is some other photos from the the guy(s) who did it.

http://www.revok1.com/pages/EXTERIOR_PAGES_00'/00-274.html

[#14 posted by Mim , February 5, 2008 4:58 PM]

#8 - I've camped with people who reuse billboard vinyl as triangular flaps to cover each triangular section of a large dome. That vinyl will stand up to about 3 or 4 years of 51 weeks of storage, and 1 week/year of intense sun and corrosive dust. After that, it tears easily, warps, and generally becomes unusable. I therefore question whether it would be worth shipping it to refugees... unless they used it as a water-proofing layer under another layer to keep it shaded from the sun.