Some pieces need explaining. This one doesn't. Two enormous koi are swimming through the air above a Tokyo street at night, and the city is carrying on as if that were normal. Japanese City Punk FX.2 Koi Attack is worth slowing down for, to see why it works.
What is in the picture
The setting is a dense city street after dark, looking straight down the road between two walls of buildings. Glass towers rise in the background, their windows lit in rows of blue and white. Closer in, the street is crowded with vertical signs in Japanese: a karaoke sign in red, shop and pharmacy signs, a tall blue and white banner on the right. Two traffic lights glow red, one on each side. Trees line the pavement at the bottom, their leaves catching orange light.
Above all this float two koi with long, veil-like fins. One hangs in the middle of the frame, angled downward, its body turning from orange at the head to pale violet along the flank. The second is higher and to the right, swimming the other way. They are huge, each one several storeys tall against the buildings, and they are lit by the same neon as the street.
Why the colours work
The whole piece is built on two colours: orange-red and deep blue. They sit opposite each other on the colour wheel, which is why each makes the other look brighter. The towers and sky are blue. The signs, traffic lights and street-level glow are orange and red. The koi carry both: orange heads and backs, fins that fade to blue and violet. That is what makes them look as if they belong in the scene and are not pasted on top of it.
The fish are also the only soft shapes in the frame. Everything else is a straight line: window grids, sign edges, the sides of buildings. The fins curve and trail. Your eye goes to them first because they break the pattern.
How the composition moves your eye
The street forms a V, with buildings on both sides leaning toward a vanishing point low in the centre. The two koi sit on a diagonal that crosses it, from lower left to upper right. The lower fish points down into the street and the upper one points back up and out. Your eye follows one, then the other, and keeps circling. It is a simple structure, and it is why the picture holds attention for longer than a straight city view would.
Koi in a cyberpunk city
Koi have a long history in Japanese art, where they stand for perseverance and good fortune. A well-known legend tells of a koi that swims up a waterfall and becomes a dragon. Cyberpunk, on the other hand, is about cities that have outgrown the people in them. Putting the two together gives the piece its tension: something old, calm and alive, moving through something new, loud and built. We look at the symbolism more in Celestial Animals: Dragons, Foxes, and Koi as Wall Art, and at the nostalgic side of these streets in what is Heisei retro.
Where it belongs
- Gaming setups and battlestations. The orange and blue palette sits well with RGB lighting, so the piece ties in with the glow from a PC or a light strip.
- A room with dark or neutral walls. On charcoal, navy or white, the neon stands out. On a strongly coloured wall, such as red or green, it will compete.
- A narrow vertical space. The artwork is portrait, so it suits the wall beside a monitor, a door or a wardrobe.
- Not the wall you face in bed. It is a busy, high-energy image. In a bedroom, hang it where you see it when you walk in, not where you look when you are trying to sleep.
Which format to choose
The piece comes in most of the formats we make, and the right one depends on how much of the detail you want to see.
- Poster: the best way to see the fine detail in the signs and windows. Matte paper, so there is no glare over the dark areas. Go for 18 × 24 inches or larger.
- Tapestry: the way to make it wall-sized. At the larger sizes the koi are bigger than you are, which suits the idea of the piece.
- Desk mat: the Special Edition version, for a desk that matches the wall.
- Graphic tee: the koi on a soft cotton tee, in sizes XS to 5XL.
- Pin and keychain: small versions for a bag or jacket, and an easy gift.
There is also a Special Edition version of the artwork, available in several of the same formats.
What to pair it with
If you want a second piece on the same wall, stay in the same world. The other pieces in the Japanese City Punk series share the street-level neon and will sit beside it without clashing. For contrast, pair it with something calm in the same blue: a misty landscape or a deep-space piece gives the eye somewhere to rest. Avoid putting it next to another image with a strong central subject in different colours; two focal points on one wall cancel each other out.
Part of a series
Koi Attack belongs to the Japanese City Punk series, alongside Japanese City Punk FX.3, a street lit in red and pink neon. The pieces are built around the same kind of street, and they work well together across a wide wall or above a long desk. For an emptier, quieter street, see Cyberpunk Slick Street.
Every format is made to order, so allow 2–7 business days for production before it ships. See the poster prints and tapestries collections for the rest of the series.