DOB is the earliest cartoon avatar in Murakami’s pantheon of recurring motifs, and was born in the early 90s from a late-night word game with friends. Coming into existence as a visual pun, his name derived from the tag line, ‘Dobojite? dobojite?’ (‘Why? Why?’) popularized by Japanese comedian, Yuri Toru. Murakami visualized this dada-ist phrase by creating an amorphous, fantastical character that takes as its referent, imaginary popular culture icons such the anime and manga figures Doraemon, Sonic the Hedgehog and Disney’s Mickey Mouse. As he explained, ‘I realized that by lining up totally unrelated words – to be specific, the phrase dobozite, dobozite oshamanbe – you could make a “Jenny Holzer-style” art … In the beginning then, Mr. DOB did not arise as a character, but simply as a figure with two ears (the left one showing the letter D, the right one the letter B, and the face forming an O), DOB being the abbreviation of the joke I just mentioned.’ DOB has since undergone various transformations in the form of paintings, inflatables, collectibles and sculptures – a fleeting life-form encapsulating the endless desire for consumption. As the artist asserts, ‘[With DOB] I had created an icon’ (T. Murakami, quoted in Murakami: Ego, New York 2012, p. 18).

© Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

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