Takashi Murakami Collaborates With Perrier
Takashi Murakami has struck a deal with Perrier for Perrier x Murakami.
Next month, premium Limited Edition Perrier screen-printed glass bottles featuring original artwork by Murakami will be launched around the world. In early 2021, the full Perrier Original range will be released in the colors and motifs of Murakami and sold at retailers nationwide.
Murakami is the latest artist to restyle the Perrier brand. Over its 150-year history, the brand has collaborated with artists such as Andy Warhol, Salvador Dalí, Bernard Villemot, Raymond Savignac, Carlu and Jean-Gabriel Domergue, all of whom have created artwork and posters for the brand.
Murakami’s signature smiling flowers aim to bring an extra pop of color and vibrancy to the green Perrier bottles, in screen-printed glass formats. Some bottles will feature Murakami’s characters, Kaikai and Kiki, who also appear alongside Perrier in a 30-second animated film, produced with Murakami. Additional products, such as cans, will launch in early 2021.
Considered one of the most important Japanese artists of this generation, Murakami creates paintings, sculptures and films populated by repeated motifs and mutating characters of his own creation. His wide-ranging work intersects pop culture, history and fine art, merging the commercial and fine-art realism and flattening the distinction between high and low culture.
Murakami recalled one of his earliest associations with Perrier. “I was on the first romantic date of my life at age 18 with a girl two years my senior. We went to a place in Ginza and I ordered a bottle of Perrier, mistaking it for alcohol. I remember it all so clearly — especially how confused I felt when I didn’t feel any alcohol effects after drinking many glasses.
“Perrier for me is closely associated first with the color green — of course — and then, with the pleasant bubbling sound of carbonation,” added Murakami. “I’m grateful to be part of the brand’s expanding views and future-facing concepts through this collaboration. I also wonder if today, when we can no longer unthinkingly hug, kiss, or shake hands, perhaps the stimulating sensation of the Perrier bubbles on our tongues will be even more heightened, as one of the enjoyable tactile experiences still available to us.”
In addition to his solo exhibitions at major art institutions, Murakami is widely known for his high-profile projects with fashion brands such as Louis Vuitton and Vans. During the Marc Jacobs era at Louis Vuitton, Murakami infused his color and style sense into bags and accessories that typically leaned toward black and brown. As reported in May, Billie Eilish and Murakami teamed up for a limited-edition T-shirt collaboration for Uniqlo that was released that month.
Murakami has also collaborated with such musicians as Kanye West and Pharrell Williams, and directs and produces films and animation.
FOR MORE STORIES:
Billie Eilish, Takashi Murakami Team Up for Uniqlo Collaboration
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