Brainstorm

Appropriation and Plan

Appropriation refers to the act of borrowing or reusing existing elements.within a new work They believe that in bor- rowing existing imagery or elements of imagery, they are re-contextualising orappropriating the origi- nal imagery, allowing the viewer to renegotiate the meaning of the original in a different, more relevant,.or more current context n separating images from the original context of their own media, we allow them to take on new andvaried meanings. The pro-cess and nature of appro- priation has considered by anthropologists as part of the study of cultural change and cross-cultural.contact Images and elements of culture that have been appropriated commonlyinvolve famous and rec-

ognisable works of art, well known literature, and easily accessible images.from the media

The first artist to success- fully demonstrate forms of appropriation within his or her work is widely considered to be Marcel Duchamp. He devisedthe concept of the ‘ready- made’, which essentiallyinvolved an item be- ing chosen by the artist, signed by the artist and repositioned into a gallery.context

Manet Bar at the Folies Bergere

This image is by Manet and is fundamental to myresearch and how art-

ists have recreated it viavarious forms and medi-ums. A Bar at the Folies-Bergère depicts a scene frommodern Parisian life. Cen- tral in the painting is a barmaid behind the bar of a club. Many focal points within the painting have illustrated many issues as to why this artwork has somuch historical controver- sy. The club, the people in it, the male customershe waits on, and remind- ers of the establishment are reflected in themirror behind the counter. While not particularly clear at a first glance, the issues between the position and appearance of the objectsin the bar and their reflec- tions have caused muchdebate In Manet’s painting

Art historian T.J. Clark’sseminal analysis of the Bar in his book: The Painting of Modern Lifeidentifies a range of is-sues between the appear- ance and position of the objects in the scene. The man in conversation with the barmaid is ‘present’ as a reflection only. It would seem that this peculiarity could be resolved by theviewer occupying his posi- tion and appropriating his gaze. Which in essense is how to want me imagesto reflect. But in this paint-ing, Manet uses the spec- tator to identify with theman by adopting his place

The “Remake” Project’s Recreationsof Famous Works of Art

Adobe and art blogBooom put forth a chal- lenge to students worth a cash prize of £10,000. When viewing the entries,I was surprised.as to howaccurately they had recre-

ated my idea. They hadn’t just copied the works of art but recreated them within a modern context. I discovered that as we reacquaint ourselves with

recognisable art, we aremet with the contempo- rary impact of the present. This is a disarming andengaging feeling but al- lows a fresh twist on howpeople recognise art his-tory It has been claimed that Picasso said: Good artists borrow, great artists steal. and as long as masters have created their work

In our era of mashups, we are accustomed to looking at appropriated images remixed, reconstructed,.and re-imagined

Claude Oscar Monet Recreation andhistorical context

THese images are my first attempt at appropriating and not copying famouspaintings but taking ele-ments out and then put-ting it into a modern con- text. For my final images, i plan on maybe shootingall black and white to al- low the viewer to define that it is a photograph rather than a recreation or.something similar

Tom Hunter

Tom Hunter is a London based photographer who is most famously known for his discriptive imagesof the mundane, the mo-notonous and the every- day, Hunter has been a photographer for almost 25 years and was the first photographer to have a solo exhibition at the National Gallery, where he now has two pieceson permanent exhibi- tion. He mainly focuses on the ordinary life ofmostly common peo- ple and a majority of his work is loosely inspired by famous masterpieces. Although there is much speculation about these images as to whether he

is simply copying. Tom Hunter has stated that they were not intended tobe photographic recon- structions of the paintings, but when side by side you can see that Tom’s work draws heavily from theseold masterpieces

In relation to this project and the outcome, my

inital inspiration camefrom looked at the art-

ists that Tom Hunter had recreated. From looking at these painters, it haslead my to discover dif-

I don’t believe in jetting off“around the world to take pic-

tures of wars in Afghanistan, because there are wars inHackney.“ Tom Hunter

ferent artists that present similar conventions in myphotography It’s clear that Vermeer is a hude influence to his workwhich is how I plan to ap-

proach this project. Tom Hunter has allowed me tolook into the technical as- pects of reimagining these masterpieces. Mainlythrough different combina- tions of lighting. It shows how these conventions ofcreating art are still tra- ditional in photography

and all other forms of art making. It’s just a different..form of expression

I looked at Vermeer’s paintings“and recreated those with photog- raphy. I was trying to invoke the dignity and beauty that Vermeer used with his subjects, and tried to imbue them on to my subjects, lifting their status, trying to show my neighbours, my community in”,a dignified, beautiful manner

Yasumasa Morimura

Yasumasa Morimure is a japa- nese appropriation artist andphotographer.His artworks con- stitute photographic works as well as performances, the roles he performs become challenges for the artistic representation of the human body and he usesmedia of many different types Morimura reimagines images from historical artists that rangefrom Édouard Manet to Rem- brandt to Cindy Sherman. His trademark is to insert his ownface and body into them

To him the art of the past is a source of inspiration, whichcould possibly become a testi- mony of contemporary cultureand a pre-iconic future. Morimu-ra’s art deconstructs estab- lished images of art history and poses questions concerningthe status of traditional master-pieces Daughter of Art History is a series Morimura dedicated totraditional artwork It is a series of photographic portraits where he identifies himself with famous models of paintings from the renaissance era to the 20th century. The final photographic result is an alternative version of famous pieces of art, which introduces a dialogue between past and

present ideals, and also the relationship be-tween painting and photography

In his photographs he impersonates various roles identifying at the same time with women as well as with men. Morimura says that he chooses specific artworks because of the ambiguity he sees in them. His photographs manage to confuse viewers as they can not clearly understand the identity of the personrepresented

tre of the image and the photographer stands on the right. This photograph is based on Édouard Manet’s painting Un Baraux Folies-Bergère Jeff Wall describes this photograph as a remake and makes clear that the miror’s motif and the roleof reflection is fundamen-

tal to both works of art

Manet’s mirror is most famous for its infidelity, especially around the time it became well known.The controversy associ- ated with Manet’s mirror resides within Jeff Wall’scomposition Wall traditionally brings cultural logic of cinema to his work. I believe Walluses the aesthetic of cine-

matography to summarise his connection to Manet’s painting. This leads to ask about what cinema can tell the viewer about A Picture for Women, andalso Bar at the Folies-Bergère

It’s as if Wall is also trying to connote the concept of being a spectator or beingspectated

Jeff Wall’s Picture for Women from 1979 is important to my progress in this project because it marks the transition of photography as an art form from the printed page to the gallery wall. In this famous photograph, a woman looks outward, as if at the viewer and acamera occupies the cen-

Jeff Wall

Flora Borsi

Flora Borsi is a Hungarian Artist that conceptualises what the models of classic paintings would look like in reality. By the use photo-manipulation, Borsi has literally morphed the compositions in a similar way contemporary designers use graphics software to create art.Borsi swaps roles and re- imagines paintings such as those by picasso as photo-realistic

Nowadays, almost every photographer will use graphics software to compose an image. Like how many painters used original versions in the past. Some artists use pure imagination to create artworks, where as others may prefer to creat art by using a real life model as reference for the anatopy I think the main question being asked of these images is, what if these abstract models were real people? It is clear that Borsi loves to explore conceptual art through photo-manipulation. She states that the essence of her work is to visualize the physically impossible, Borsi used herself as the model, and prepared by researching suitable clothing and accessories to best convey the emotion of the original painting. After the photo shoot, she digitally added the original subject’s features and particularcharacter to her own

In relation to my progress with this project, I will begin by using this notion of editing to create similar scenes in my work. Instead of morphing my images to resemble a perception of artwork in the real world i will edit them to closely resemble the painting as if it were constructed in the present. I plan on making a filter that will match my image›s colours, contrast, sharpness, etc to exactlythat of the painting

Romina Ressia‘s photog- raphy is heavily inspired by fashion, but this seriesare not based on typi- cal fashion photography. Ressia uses renaissance costuming and painterly lighting to make images reimagined in a classic form. Although, Ressia retains ideals of modernculture by inserting con-

temporary objects. In oneimage the model is hold- ing a Cambell’s soup can. This concept is almost as if the photographer plans on putting the status of art into photography. This selection carries a similarapproach. Particularly re-

ferring to her series ‘Howwould have been?’, Res-

sia says she was ”inspired by a longing about pasttimes, despite the ad-

vances and technology we have today,“ adding a layer of nostalgia to thealready ironic and humor-.ous photographs

Romina Ressia

This is my first attemptat recreating certain im- ages.. I feel the shoot was successful because i wasn’t trying to simply copy the paintings i was trying to take aspects of it and then put it into a portrait. For example a certain pose has been borrowed or maybe the colours of the painting. When at a first glance it isnot clear that they are rec-

reations but when put with the painting it is obvious.how they come to exsist

For my final shoot i plannd to recreate Picasso’s ‘A boy with a pipe’ but within.a modern context Just like the previous im- ages i wanted to explorenotions of copying cer-

tain aspects rather than restageing the painting. I wanted to colours to be exact to the painting but in terms of the use of modeland clothing i have creat-

ed a final image that therepresents the contem-

porary juxaposition of thr.painting

Evaluation In conclusion, I believe the final image/images to be a success. The imagealone provides ambigu-

ity but when placed next to the original painting itoffers the idea of appor- priation. To me this project was mainly experimental so i could judge whetheror not i could class my im-ages as original appropri-ations or simply copying. This interests my creativeparadigm because con- cepts of originality and of authorship are central tothe debate of appropria-tion The term ‘author’ refers to one who originates a piece of work. Authorshipthen determines a respon- sibility for what is created by that author. The idea of appropriation is often thought to support thepoint of view that author- ship in art is a misguidedconcept Perhaps the most central theme in the discourse on

appropriation is the issue of originality. The primary question we must address is, what is originality? Is It is a quality that can refer to the circumstances ofcreation or can we ap- proach originality in two ways. Is it a property of the work of art itself, or is...it a property of the artist