무라카미를 상징하는 또다른 캐릭터는 바로 이 활짝 웃는 꽃이다.
영미권에서는 'Happy Flower', 'Murakami Flower' 등으로 불리는 듯하며, 우리나라에선 이 꽃 캐릭터의 이름을 잘 모르는 사람이 많아 주로 '해바라기'나 '무지개꽃', '스마일꽃' 등으로 부른다.
무라카미는 히로시마·나가사키 원자폭탄 투하에서 영감을 받아 만들어진 웃는 꽃 캐릭터를 통해 활짝 웃는 얼굴 이면에 숨겨진 절망과 공포를 드러내고자 했다고 한다.
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참고) 근거 요구해서 덧붙임
저 글은 ㄷq에서 퍼왔음
관련 인터뷰 찾기는 어렵지 않음
https://www.thecollector.com/what-are-takashi-murakami-most-famous-
Murakami says the inspiration for his flowers came from his early training in the Nihonga tradition, in which he learned how to paint stylized individual flowers in a traditional manner. However, as with much of his art, there is also a darker strand to Murakami’s flowers. He says their smiling faces reflect the repressed collective emotions held by Japanese locals whose lives were affected by the extreme violence of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings of 1945.
https://hypebeast.com/2020/11/takashi-murakami-flowers-behind-the-hype-video
While his Flowers appear whimsical and innocent, the motivations behind Murakami’s smiling floral figures are much darker. In a 2005 article from the New York Times, the artist explained that the smiling Flowers evoked repressed, contradictory emotions and collective trauma of Japanese locals triggered by the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings back in 1945. The violence portrayed in the artist’s aforementioned animated video for Eilish, especially showing the decimation of the Flowers, makes the sinister concept even more apparent.