Meta x Murakami at The Broad

Client Meta
Studio BUCK 
Role Creative Director

BUCK, Meta, The Broad Museum, and artist Takashi Murakami collaborated to create six site-specific AR experiences for the exhibition "Stepping on the Tail of a Rainbow," the artist's first solo exhibition at the museum. The goal was to highlight the artist's work and enhance the visitor experience by adding a digital layer that complemented both the exhibition and the museum's architecture.

Visitors were first greeted in front of the Broad's iconic facade by an AR  Mr. DOB, Murakami's mascot, who was blinking and smiling as he floated on a cloud that was drizzling smiling Ohana Flowers.To ensure the AR accentuated the art and the exhibit without recontextualizing, BUCK worked closely with Mr. Murakami and the Broads teams on concepts and the placement of the AR experiences. BUCK also corresponded daily with Kaikai Kiki, Murakami's studio based in Japan, to faithfully represent the art.



The second AR encounter was with a cluster of friendly 3D Ohana Flowers that roosted in the Broad's covered passageway, entertaining visitors queued up to enter the museum. Mr. Murakami tested each effect on site with BUCK’s team during the final days of the exhbits installation. 

Inside the lobby, the tone shifted from sunshine and flowers to 14-foot-tall demons leering out at visitors from alcoves digitally carved into the concrete walls. The demon sculptures, Embodiment of 'A' and Embodiment of 'Um', debuted at the same show where the titular painting, Standing on the Tail of a Rainbow, went on display, so including them at the gates of The Broad exhibit made sense.

The physical sculptures were part of another exhibition at the time of the Broad’s exhibition, so it was not possible to physically ship them to Los Angeles. By building them in AR, Mr. Murakami and The Broad's curator were able to maintain their vision and setting the sculptures into virtual cavities in the curved walls invented new space to display art in the architecturally distinct lobby.



Mr. Murakami desired to personally greet visitors in some digitally way, so any visitor not scared away by the demons was greeted by a reassuring AR version of Pom & Me at the title wall where they could grab a keepsake photo.



Beyond the gallery entrance two more “digital ghosts” were hiding among the artist’s most famous works.

The Clone X Avatar series was created with RTFKT as an NFT collection. After completing the NFT digital sculptures, Murakami created IRL chrome versions of HIROPON and My Lonesome Cowboy, which were displayed at the Gagosian Gallery in NYC. At the same time, the Broad exhibit was being installed in Los Angeles. Using the Metaverse Murakami was able to digitally teleport his physical work from New York to a physical gallery in Los Angeles.  

Again BUCK worked very closely with the museums team to make sure the AR effects had enough physical space around them to keep visitors from bumping into priceless art while using the AR.
Collaborating with all parties involved was a career highlight that I’ll never forget.




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