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mariabblackyr2 · 5 years

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Nothing Is Original (and thats ok) - Lecture Notes & Set Task

Aims for lecture: to start to think about originality, to think about the concept of what a copy is and how this might impact my practice. Also to begin to think about the terms pastiche and appropriation.

Palimpsest - a literal description of a physical object “ Paper, parchment, or other writing material designed to be reusable after any writing on it has been erased”

By the 19th century the definition had to be tightened and was then referred to ‘a manuscript in which later writing had been superimposed on earlier writing’

During the 1800’s the word also evolved into a metaphor - with it retaining traces of its earlier form.

What is Originality? - How do we define it? Should we try and purse originality? Does it even exist? If so what does it look like?

The Artist as a Conman - Wolfgang Beltracchi - in open prison, the thrill of the crime, painted exact copies of famous painters and sold them as the artists not his, shouldn't look at a painting to say this is this or that.

So why does it matter? Where are I going? And Why should you listen?

Everything is - uncanny, a hoax, theft, deja-vu, appropriation - nothing is every original - everything is re-appropriated.

To define something it can be easier to compare it to its opposites, for example to define appropriation art you can compare them to forgery to see similarities - so re-appropriation is using a piece of work again in your own style whilst forgery is right off copying.

Historical Context - This idea of copying stems from artist apprenticeships where they would be trained to be artists by copying their ‘masters’ - a necessary formation as part of artist training.

The practice can also be traced back to cubist collage - from works such as Picasso and Braque (1912)

As well as this the theme of surrealism follows ideas of copying and forgery in works done by artists such as Salvador Dali, Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg

Alongside this Marchel Duchamp - presents everyday objects.

Appropriation within art practice:

The deliberate production of another artists work

Artists copying artworks for their own artistic expression

It involves adopting intellectual property from elsewhere

Borrows images, styles, forms from art history or pop culture

Evolved around the 1960’s and then peaked in the 80’s

Appropriation - or making artworks using already existing artworks

Terms around The readymade, pastiche, parody, stealing, simulation

Appropriation :

Pastiche, Parody and the Remake

Postmodernism has been characterized by new creations as well as the sense that everything that is ‘new’ has been done before.

Postmodernism asks the question, ‘can there ever be new ideas and images’ Will anything ever be any different from what has come before. However, does any creation or trend have to be new, does it really matter?

In today's day and age the world consists of a huge variety of images that are remakes or copies of each other- with pop culture, art and architecture the concept of an image being original has been thoroughly subverted.

A key term used to describe the culture of imitation, copying and parodying is pastiche. The film theorists Richard Dyer has written the way to understand pastiche is as an ‘imitation that announces itself as such and that involves combining elements from other sources.’

According to Dyer collage, montage - a style of composing that combines elements from different places - within imitating we can find different combinations and relationships to the original text

Pastiche can be a form of play

Photographers who explore re-appropriation:

John Strezkar - uses found images to create collages and montages which recreate the original narrative of the photographs.

Jeff Wall - Wall created the photograph titled ‘A Sudden Gust of Wind’ which is remarkably similar to a Japanese Painting.

Levine says ‘ the world is filled to suffocating. Man has placed his token on every stone.every word, every image, is leased mortgaged. We know that a picture is but a space in which a variety of images, none of them original, blend and clash.’

Levine's work questions the ownership of art and what originality really is. Her image our famous for being is a blatant violation of their copyright.

Originality - ‘the action of mechanical reproduction effectively diminishes the concept of originality’.

The mass, mechanical reproducibility of art has reduced its authenticity

Mass production removes what he calls the aura - a sort of unique authority - from the work.

Even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element: Its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be.

The Death of the Author - Barthes extended this concept of ‘The Death of the Author’ to question originality and authenticity - he talked about how any text or image did not emit a fixed meaning from one person but yet a range of quotations that were references to yet other text.

Igor Stravinksy - was writing ballet - corrected scores of classic manuscript - borrowing baselines whilst adding his own harmonies - ‘how dare you do that to the classics’ - you respect but i love

Kleon loves newspapers - daily dispatch of human experience

The artist as the collector - collects selectively - collect ideas

‘Stole words from the newspaper’ blocked out words on the page that he didn’t need to create a poem.

Published a book

Thought he was ripping off government censorship - however work was said to be unoriginal

Tom Philips - uses books - paints and draws over the page leaving words floating on pages

Philips got it from William Burroughs who had a cut up writing technique

Burroughs got it from Brion Gysin who was a painter cut through newspapers - poetry

Tristin Tzara - cut up newpaper put pieces in hat them read them as a poem

Caleb Whitefoord - read across newspapers - funny combinations - published broadsheet

Kleon - idea ‘unoriginal’ - nothing is original - all creative work builds on what came before - every new idea is a remix of previous ideas

We are remix of ancestors - a genealogy ideas exists also - friends, books, music - mashup of what you let into your life

Stealing what meant something to him - expose yourself to the best things humans have done them bring them into what you're doing

Good artists copy - great artists steal

All art is theft - bad poets steal and de-face it

youtube

Set Task

For the set task I did some research into Richard Prince as well as looking at the book Appropriation to further explore theory and ideas around the topic.

Appropriation - Documents of contemporary art

‘ Pictures’ showcased artists who re photographed works

‘The death of the Author’ - ‘questions the notion of originality’

Appropriation art was justified via the ideas of Jean Baudrillard - merging reality with media's representation of reality itself

Happened around postmodernism

Influential galleries for appropriation -Metro Pictures and Sonnabend

Artists who debated postmodernism

Took place largely in the 1970’d/1980’s.

Barthes and Foucault were ‘ taken up by postmodernism to construct a critical space for works using appropriated imagery and stereotypes, largely through photography.

Jean Baudrillard

‘The simulacrum is never what hides the truth - it is the truth that hides the fact that there is none. The simulacrum is true’ - an image or representation of someone or something that is not true - links in with Richard - simulacrum is a fable - it is fake

Richard Prince never wanted to copy but create a resemblance

The technique is how you manage and reproduce the image - Prince disassociate’s from the images original intentions

A late 20th century style and concept in the arts, architecture and criticism, which represent a departure from modernism and is characterised by the self conscious use of earlier styles and conventions, a mixing of different artistic styles and media, and a general distrust of theories.

Richard Prince

‘What Richard is doing is questionably legal, but even if something is legal and ‘starts a dialogue’ it doesn’t mean you should actually do it.’

An infamous appropriation artist

He re-photographs, scans and manipulates the works of others

Draws his subjects from subcultures and cultural cliches

Shows how we accept stereotypes and messages from marketing - how we rely on the icons that are created by marketing such as instagram. - reproduces cliches of advertising - revelling that the messages and images are fiction

Taking things from the original environment such as a screen shot - the familiar becomes unfamiliar and uncomfortable - inviting the viewer to criticize

Has had multiple lawsuits due to the ‘borrowing’ of work.

Prompts others to think about the ownership of art and question what is art

Has created a series of works appropriating peoples instagram posts - repurposing them by changing the caption then hanging them on a gallery wall - controversial due to - captions provoking thoughts around current issues

Distorts the idea of owning something

When working for time-life he used advertising images then cropped them down to create his own images - ‘it was used to create a fiction, but it had come from a truth’ - creates a different meaning for advertising photography

Known for rephotographing Marlboro cigarette advertisements then re-titled them.

links:

https://www.anothermag.com/art-photography/9602/the-new-exhibition-examining-appropriation-in-art

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jul/18/instagram-artist-richard-prince-selfies

https://www.dazeddigital.com/art-photography/article/46679/1/richard-prince-causes-controversy-instagram-appropriation-art-artwork-theft

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/20/arts/design/richard-prince-instagram-copyright-lawsuit.html

https://www.theartstory.org/artist/prince-richard/

#contextualstudies

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