10,000 Gumball Takashi Murakami Tribute Is Literal Eye Candy

It’s not hard to imagine Takashi Murakami’s colorful world of Japanese pop culture and tradition as an eye-popping candy mosaic. With thousands of bubblegum gumballs, Flour Shop owner Amirah Kassem did just that: she recreated Murakami’s famous smiling flowers on the walls for an installation at the Brooklyn Artists Ball (which took place this past Wednesday evening), where Murakami—along with Jean-Michel Basquiat’s family, and artist Kiki Smith—was an honored guest.

“The way [Murakami’s] finish is, it sort of gives me the illusion of being one giant gumball with flowers in it,” Kassem told the The New York Times. “So what’s something else we can do with it? Of course, 10,000 gumballs into flowers was the answer!” According to the New York Times, the piece took 15 hours to complete, with Kassem using different sizes of balls to ensure there were no gaps in the final piece.

Below, see Kassem’s rainbow tribute to Murakami:

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