Once Upon a Time 1996

In this work, "Once Upon a Time," Tadanori Yokoo dives deep into the collage aesthetic to assemble a world of kaleidoscopic stories. I can imagine Yokoo riffing on Pop Art, pulling from memories and dreams, and slicing through layers of meaning to make this work. The elements are really something: beams of light radiating, a giant baby face, bits of text that read, "Once Upon a Time," all bumping up against each other. Yokoo is like a DJ, sampling images from everywhere—high art, low art, personal history—to create something totally new. He's pushing us to see how images work on us, how they shape our dreams and memories. I think he's showing how art can be a wild, unruly conversation across time. And how uncertainty is not a weakness, but where the magic happens.