【Branding】

Five boxes in Tottori... for 300 million yen?

This is quite a heated question, I thought. There's an art piece called "Brillo Boxes" (I had days when I thought about writing the manuscript but first had to bring in the laundry. There was a UT printed with Brillo Boxes. Oh, my child, when did you start wearing this T-shirt? Could it be that my desire to talk about Brillo Boxes was unconsciously instilled in me? It is a 1964 work by Andy Warhol that mimics everyday boxes. It is classified as contemporary art, but I don't think it is the kind of thing that you react to at first glance without any prior knowledge, thinking that it is beautiful or moving. It looks like an ordinary box. Warhol may be strongly associated with repetitive two-dimensional works such as Campbell's soup cans and Marilyn Monroe, but Brillo Box is one of the world's most famous three-dimensional works of contemporary art.

The Tottori Prefectural Museum of Art purchased five Brillo Boxes for a total of about 300 million yen. Four of them were made separately after Warhol's death by people associated with him. If repetition is important, then rather than saying they bought five pieces, shouldn't we say they only bought five pieces? That aside, 300 million yen. I saw many articles and headlines about it. I thought that numbers are a surefire way to catch people's attention.

That said, since it's a prefectural purchase, my first impression as an outsider to both administration and art was that it likely followed a solid process, not some impulsive "I felt a spark and just had to buy it." If that's the case, how should we interpret this phenomenon? 300 million yen is expensive. Yet 300 million yen isn't expensive. It suggests a judgment, or rather, the discernment of the people (those in the art world) who made that judgment. Is it something different from the PR effect or festive atmosphere of, say, a 300 million yen tuna at the first auction?

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The museum has a collection policy as its backbone, so the Brillo Box fits that policy and was within budget. There are probably good scenarios that can be drawn from owning this work, scenarios that can only be drawn because it is owned.

This work occupies an important position in art history and has solid academic value. Considering precedents such as the Tokyo Museum of Contemporary Art's purchase of Roy Lichtenstein's "Girl with a Hair Ribbon," which was followed by a surge in the market value of Lichtenstein's works, now is the only time to buy, or rather, now is the only time you can buy. A truly talented work, Brillo Box, is now within reach. My heart rate is about to increase. Once I get it, it may transform even further. My heart rate is likely to increase even more.

Collecting, storing, researching, and educating (exhibiting) works are naturally interrelated, so works collected under a certain concept must be considered in terms of how they will be shown to people within that concept and how they will be connected to education. Acquiring a star player does not solve everything; the manager (director) must naturally consider how that star player will function as part of the team and how to develop the team.

Additionally, museums apparently have a culture of lending and borrowing works with other institutions. While this might involve a spirit of mutual exchange, it could also be described as negotiation. I thought, if you have a Brillo Box, that would certainly put you in a stronger negotiating position. It's oddly turned into all sports analogies. The difference from athletes (people) is that works can have astonishingly long active careers.

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There are various ways to view or interpret numbers, which can be interesting, but it can also be exhausting. You might focus on the absolute value, compare side-by-side, or contemplate the timeline, including future projections.

The Brillo box incident has already been widely reported in the media, raising awareness significantly. In advertising terms, it's probably worth quite a bit. But will this translate into action? More specifically, will it lead to economic ripple effects? Will people actually move, impact the input-output tables, and see the numbers propagate all the way to secondary ripple effects without running out of steam? What kind of impression will the ¥300 million figure ultimately make? Since this is real-time, live reality unfolding that current Japanese society would do well to know about, you might be tempted to say, "Come on, you've got to be a witness to this era!" But chasing numbers is, in itself, a hassle and seems exhausting.

So, shifting perspective slightly from the propagation of numbers, perhaps viewing it as the propagation of the heat generated by the people creating the exhibition lends it a bit more charm. The keyword for the opening exhibition is, coincidentally, "real." And it's said to embody the wish to make it an opportunity to glimpse the future of the museum. What a lofty perspective. The level of passion, or rather, the caliber demonstrated in this opening exhibition must be substantial. Ah, I thought, even if they hadn't acquired the Brillo Box, they would have created another kind of real with this passion and skill. Like a parallel universe.

Public art museums exist throughout every prefecture and town in Japan, and the Tottori Prefectural Museum of Art is the latest addition among Japan's prefectural museums. It represents the newest form of presentation possible in Japan today. How cool would it be if this passion, through the long journey of collection exhibitions and more, spreads from Tottori to Japan and then to the world? Man, that's hot.

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In Tokyo · Approaching 50 · Sansasicion

I tried to trace the opening 5-7-5 syllable structure and come up with something clever, but it just turned into a nonsensical 5-7-5. Of course, I didn't mean to say I'm approaching 50. I visited Yamaguchi Akira's exhibition "Here Comes the Irresistible Sensation" at Artizon Museum before, and it left a strong impression. I never imagined the word "sensation" would surface here like this. Apparently, "sensation" is French for "sensation."

Brillo Boxes mimic everyday household items. Those items are, of course, mass-produced goods. It's strange how mass-produced items, and then imitations of those imitations, can become some of the world's most unique (one-of-a-kind) creations. What motivated him to make something like this? What made him choose this method? I thought, "Ah, this is Warhol's grand scheme." Deliberately imitating everyday items, backed by the immense weight and depth of art history.

And the fact that owning this three-dimensional work becomes one of the museum's unique features? It really does evoke a profoundly strange sensation. If we assume a museum is a place where individuals want to freely express their sensibilities and intellect—a space quite different from the speed of mass-consumption society—then naturally, a mere box-like object can no longer be seen as just a box. Especially if it's a famous work. Earlier, I wrote that this isn't something you react to at first glance without prior knowledge. But perhaps the opposite is true—you might react immediately. You might do a double take, wondering, "Is this art?" It makes you think. Is this the Tottori Prefectural Museum of Art's grand scheme? An event from distant Tottori has already spread within me (I try to calm myself by making a self-deprecating joke: "This is more like a Brillo box, or a little box of memories, right? Though no one would get that").

It's probably just my imagination, but I feel connected not just to the physical work itself, but to the history of art, to the enduring thoughts and activities of humanity. Still, I couldn't help but jot down this personal sensation. It's small, but real.

Ars longa, vita brevis

Image production: Satoshi Iwashita