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    Futurist Japanese Artists Show Us Life in the Next Century

    Welcome back to MangoBot, a biweekly column about Asian futurism by TokyoMango blogger Lisa Katayama. There's a lot of buzz about Japanese contemporary artists these days. Takashi Murakami's super-cute, superflat alien-like characters are on everything from Louis Vuitton bags to the pages of io9. But he isn't the first or only Japanese artist on our radar. This week, I'm going to introduce you to two very cool futurist artists whom I love, Yayoi Kusama and Mariko Mori. One of them has spent her life covering the world with polka dots, and the other traveled the globe in her own alien pod. More »
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    Japanese Artist Toured the World in Zen Alien Pod

    There's something about Mariko Mori that makes her slightly more cyborg than other New York-based Japanese multimedia artists. Maybe it's the fact that she spent a good part of her thirties meditating in an alien pod that traveled around the world (a snapshot of her here on her Egypt tour). Or maybe it's because she realizes that naked blue aliens may very well hold hands and meditate. In a new, self-titled book of her art, you can see a terrific collection of her work. More art after the jump. More »