On an Endless Journey on a Time Machine With Author Fujiko F. Fujio! 2018

Takashi Murakami made this print, On an Endless Journey on a Time Machine With Author Fujiko F. Fujio!, and what hits you first is the sheer intensity of it. It's like a visual sugar rush, right? Murakami's work is all about this tension between the super-flat, almost cartoonish imagery and the complex ideas underneath. Look at the surface texture, it's so smooth it’s almost like a digital screen, and yet it’s made with layers and layers of pigment. There’s one particular flower right at the bottom, its got this little cheeky grin, and its surrounded by this riot of colour – it encapsulates the whole piece for me. I think Murakami is in conversation with artists like Warhol, who also blurred the lines between high and low culture, but he’s doing it with this Japanese sensibility that’s all his own. It's an invitation to embrace the contradictions and find joy in the chaos.