Design practice 2: "Appropriation"

tends to inspire debate in art and communication- politicisation, parody, twisting meanings, subjective, questioning

How are mass images recontextualized?

Marcel Duchamp- Mona lisa 'she has a fine ass' and urinal presented as a fountain. Taking familiar visuals and appropriating them for his own meaning-politically motivated or parody. 'Dada movement'

Raoul Haussmann 1920's too - collages of publications to bring fine art in to a more democratic zone, 'into the hands of the people', 'anti-art'

1960s minimizing works such as Andy Warhol's 'Marilyn Monroe- Richard Pettibone and Elaine Sturtevant took the mass culture images/techniques and changed/altered them

David Lachapelle- andy warhol style on models in the 2000's in context of photography

The plagiarism issue is usually solved by paying the money as artists are rich enough

Sheperd Fairey - barack obama 'hope'

Tracey Ma- matter zine and bloomberg business week covers

Questions what authorship, authenticity, what art is or can be, process and making of, and what value and meaning in mass culture is.

Cultural Appropriation

a lot of the time how western societies use symbols and icons of distinct cultures, races and religions.

ghost in the shell white washing/katy perry using geisha fashion/white people with dreadlocks/bindi festival fashion trend

Saana hamid appropriation

Celebration or cultural appropriation?

Parody

Adbusters- 'Absolut impotence' anti-adverts poking fun or questioning the legitimacy of brands using their style and tone of voice/visual language against them

Pastiche

works losing their original power, redone. using visual language and style from a distinct era but moving their codes on to something new.

Stephen King's recognizable tyography now recognized for Stranger Things title/opening sequence.

Study Task

'Style Steal' a collage statement on cultural appropriation in fashion magazines and the fashion industry, the phrase being taken from such magazines in fashion sections when people are searching for the same clothes modelled on celebs etc. Play on fashion mag terms now used to highlight how magazines use African/Indian/Oriental fashions as trends in Western world which people conclude as cultural appropriation.

Their excuse/reason for doing it: 'because it looks cool'. Montages of these images from accessories, hairstyles, and backdrops used in fashion magazines from non western countries along with mix and matching various culture trends on white models to make the statement that this is cultural appropriation.

A statement of child labour in fashion with Karl Lagerfield with his arms around these hopeful young African boys. To the right, a vogue label painfully sewed in to a black man, representing the same issue of production labour for fashion in third world countries.

Showcasing the word 'theft' along with a white man in traditional Indian clothing in a fashion magazine I took a lot of these images from which prompted my statement of them using them 'because it looks cool', alongside the very controversial Japanese subculture of 'Ganguro' in which these ladies darken their skin and mimic black fashion and facial features which is extreme cultural appropriation, which was amazing that I found this in one of these magazines!

On the white model to the left also with the African tribal head dress, I cut out black features and added to her faces to highlight the current awareness that black features are only celebrated on white women/light skinned women.

Was really humbled to get comments from peers that they really enjoyed my concept and that it looked like I had done collage before, which I actually havent! Enjoyed it a lot and would do it for a project in the future for sure.