"Embodiment of 'Um'" (left) and "Embodiment of 'A'" (right).
"Embodiment of 'A'" and "Embodiment of 'Um'" are twin sculptures made in 2014 by Takashi Murakami. They stand five meters tall and were presented in Murakami's "The Octopus Eats Its Own Leg"
(2018) exposition.
As expected for Murakami, they are made of several materials — zelkova wood, fiberglass, stainless steel, and acrylic—, intertwined together so the final product feels as traditionally Japanese as it feels modern.
These sculptures provide examples of:
- Blood Knight: "Embodiment of 'A's" name is a reference to its position, eternally in the middle of giving a battle cry.
- Blue Is Calm: "Um" is blue all over and holds a contemplative, restrained pose; resting its hands on its club, closing its eyes, and leaning its head down.
- Color-Coded Characters: The two Onis are identical in design, only differing in the color of their skin. "A" is red while "Um" is blue, this is meant as a shorthand for the emotions they represent.
- Colour-Coded Emotions: "A" and "Um" respectively represent each side of the Red Is Violent vs. Blue Is Calm contrasting duality.
- Everything's Better with Rainbows: A staple of Murakami's work, the sculptures are covered in bright, psychedelic coloring. Their eyes, teeth, and the platform they stand on feature a wide range of saturated colors.
- Oni: The beasts are based on the demon-ogres of Japanese Folklore. Both draw from the depiction of technicolor-skinned ogres with tiger hide-made loin-cloths and kanabōs in hand.
- Pelts of the Barbarian: The Onis don't seem to belong to a sophisticated civilization but rather be embodiments of a primitive, demonic race that still relies on wooden clubs for fighting and uses striped pelts to cover their loins.
- Primitive Clubs: The Onis are depicted as primitive demons who wear only groin pelts and wield massive, spiked, wooden clubs as weapons.
- Red Is Violent: "A" is red and is standing in a mid-scream, ready-to-fight pose, as it confidently grips its club with one hand.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: They are literal incarnations of this trope. "Embodiment of 'A'" is red-skinned and a Blood Knight. "Embodiment of 'Um'", by contrast, is blue-skinned and The Stoic.
- The Stoic: "Embodiment of 'Um's" name is a reference to its position, being frozen in a contemplative pose.
- Youkai:
- Both "A" and "Um" are stereotypical Onis.
- "Embodiment of 'A'" is standing on a pair of Tsurube-otoshi —i.e., giant-disembodied heads.
- "Embodiment of 'Um'": is steeping on a smaller, monstrous-looking, red creature.
