You alluded to other projects that your time at home has allowed you to achieve, including upcoming exhibitions, collaborations, another jellyfish eyes film and a video game. What can you tell us about your Exhibition May 2022 at Gagosianincluding how it connects to Murakami.Flowers?

In this exhibition, I will create and present three bodies of work with different themes: Murakami.Flowers, my Clone X collaboration with RTFKT, and paintings inspired by Qinghua, which are blue and white ceramics from the Yuan dynasty in China. . In the beginning, Gagosian owner Larry Gagosian asked me to paint seven Qinghua paintings with fish patterns, so I was just working on them. The timing was such that I asked if I could also show works related to Clone X and Murakami.Flowers, and he agreed. I decided to present the three exhibitions simultaneously and give the exhibition an overall title, “An arrow through history”. Japanese culture originated in the Eurasian continent, and my concept was to go beyond, from there into the metaverse, traversing art history with a single arrow. I think it worked well.

Do you see the contemporary art world and the NFT world becoming one in the future?

I think the metaverse world will become like the current internet world. I spend about 19 hours a day staring at my phone, and I think more and more people will be immersed in the metaverse on the same level. In that sense, I believe metaverse artwork will exist on a scale comparable to current “real” world artwork.

Prior to the release of Murakami.Flowers, you were particularly outgoing via an email newsletter and social media posts, where you provide insight into your philosophies and process. In some cases, it feels like you’re showing up for the first time, despite an acclaimed 31-year career. With Murakami.Flowers, do you feel like starting over?

I think most NFT users are younger or teenagers, so chances are no one knows a 60 year old like me. That’s why I’m explaining myself. It’s like Dragon Ball Z’s Kame Sennin, aka Master Roshi, shows up. It’s like I’m saying, “Do you know this old man?

You said that NFTs are potentially “a first step towards future values ​​that we are not yet beginning to understand”. Do you have any hopes for these future stocks?

Now that I’m 60, I’ve seen how home computers emerged and how the Internet world was born from scratch. Today we can computerize everything on our mobile phones, but 20 years ago it was impossible to imagine. In 20 years, I bet mobile devices themselves will be gone. I imagine that, by then, what you think in your brain will be instantly realized. In a world where humans are completely changed, we will be forced to reflect on what art is, and new values ​​will be generated from this contemplation.