Not a Sidewalk Bag
By There’s been lots of buzz recently in New York about the big Takashi Murakami show opening at the Brooklyn Museum. You know Murakami. He’s the one who creates Japanese animation-style images as oversize art. Oh yeah, and he also collaborates with handbag giant Louis Vuitton to create and sell limited edition colorful Vuitton/Murakami bags for thousands of dollars. The look like this. It’s the perfect coming together of art and commerce.
But it’s hit a new low. In the New York Times Styles Section today (I know, the Styles Section), there’s an article about the oh-so-smart presentation of the Vuitton bags for sale at the Murakami opening this week. Here’s a photo:
Get it? The Museum is blurring the line between authentic and fake by staging a Disney-esque street scene in which black men (chosen because they resemble the West African immigrants who can be found on many a street corner selling fake Vuitton/Murakami bags) sell thousands-dollar bags to the wealthy. And the wealthy get the experience of …. buying a bag from a black man on the street instead of a young woman in a 5th Avenue store?
All of this, it seems, is intended as a commentary on the problems of counterfeiting. The social commentary about the problems of consumerism, class, and race seems totally lost.