Homework 9

     The Copy Rights article and Steal Like An Artist overlap because address the issue of appropriation, copying, and originality.  The article gives examples of appropriation artists and gives opinions of different artists on their views of appropriation.  One aspect that is very much in common is the example about Miranda Lichtenstein; she was accused of appropriating a short film from 1897.  But she claims that her video is a reappropriation from one she saw on Youtube and that the short film itself is an appropriation because it is a copy of a performance and the dancer appropriated popular dance moves of that time.  This ties in with Kleon’s claim in Steal like an Artist that basically everything is copied/appropriated and nothing is 100% original.

      An appropriation artist is an artist who bases all of their work off of reinterpreting another artist’s work.  I think that all artists today are appropriation artists to an extent.  What they create may be their original work and may not look like anything else that has existed, but all of their thoughts and ideas come from their experiences and art they have seen so it is not original to them.

     I think that the artists from the 16th century could have been appropriating, but it is more prevalent now.  Art and ideas can travel much faster and to a wider audience than it could back then.  I’m not saying that they didn’t appropriate, but I think it is more common now.  I do think that appropriating now is different than appropriating then because of the technology available.  Back then ways to express yourself were more limited and now we have more ways to make art and to appropriate other art.

     I found this image that Marcel Duchamp appropriated by putting a mustache on the Mona Lisa.

     High art is considered a piece of work that has high value because of its meaning or how fine it is.  These are works of art that are in museums or well-known.  Low art is considered low in value because it is more of a craft.  An example is an ad.  I think that the definitions do change when being appropriated because famous works of art are appropriated and reprinted everywhere but they do not hold as much value as the original.

     Appropriation, to me, is taking most or all of the aspects of one piece of work and using them to make your own work/interpretation.  Sampling is taking like one aspect or looking at many works of art and combining them to make your own piece.  Image transfer is taking an image and changing it or adding your own elements to change it and make it your own.

     I think that Kelley’s Black Star Press piece has a deep meaning even though he claims it doesn’t pertain to race.  To me, in combining white, milk, and dark chocolate together, they are representing the coming together of the races since the times of segregation in the photo.  I think his race, being white, adds a layer because whites were known for being the most discriminatory and a white artist showing, what I think, is the coming together of the races, shows how far we have come.  I don’t see a problem with him appropriating the image.

     I do agree that documentaries are appropriation because there are segments in documentaries that aren’t filmed by the director but need to be used to show the history or prove what they are trying to say.  People upload or share videos/pictures taken by other people on social media all the time but add their own comments, which can be reappropriation.

     I chose Cindy Sherman as the artist I wanted to research.  I found her work interesting because there was a lot of nudity… When looking through the google images of her work, it was somewhat creepy.  One of her series that I found was titled “Sex Pictures” which was dolls posed in sexual positions, and it is meant to show the dehumanization of women in our society.  I thought this was an interesting feminist like approach.