Jamie Zill Senior Portfolio 2010-11: Idea

“To take possession of another's imagery (or sounds), often without permission, reusing it in a context which differs from its original context, most often in order to examine issues concerning originality or to reveal meaning not previously seen in the original. This is far more aggressive than allusion or quotation, it is not the same as plagiarism however. An image reused in collage is an example, but more complete are the photographs that Sherri Levine (American) made of photographs by earlier photographers.”

http://www.artlex.com

I have recently become very intrigued by a set of old photographs, so I decided to re-do them. I took aspects such as clothing, position, and lifestyle into consideration, and became this woman in the photographs. This experience was empowering, as stated in the latter quote below, "a strong personal identification with [both] the primordial artist." This connection is what I am aiming for, yet James Young's article about cultural mixing and their flaws, which he calls an "aesthetic handicap," made me think I may not be doing it properly. I was not alive in the seventies and can not relate one hundred percent to the culture, because most of what I know is through movies and media, which has a great bias possibility. Yet I do not feel as if that is as important as a strong connection with the former artist, my uncle. My use of appropriation is to be put into another's shoes, whether it be my uncle or one or a combination of his lovers.

QUOTES

“The pictures I make are really ghosts of ghosts; their relationship to the original images is tertiary, i.e., three or four times removed. By the time a picture becomes a bookplate it's already been rephotographed several times. When I started doing this work, I wanted to make a picture which contradicted itself. I wanted to put a picture on top of a picture so that there are times when both pictures disappear and other times when they're both manifest; that vibration is basically what the work's about for me-that space in the middle where there's no picture.”

-Quoted by Sherrie Levine in an interview by Jeanne Siegel

Siegel, Jeanne. "After Sherrie Levine." Sherrie Levine @ art / not art. N.p., Sept. 2010. Web. 29 Sept. 2010. <http://www.artnotart.com/sherrielevine/arts.su.85.html>.

“His inability to cope with [these] forces compelled him to develop his early conception of appropriation, and his relevatory visit to the Trocadero Museum crystallized his realization that the potent weapon of appropriation could be assimilated into his art to control or conquer these dangerous and unpredictable forces throughout his career…Picasso’s subsequent methods of appropriation: a fundamental belief that art is, in his words, ““a form of magic,”” a strong personal identification with both the primordial artist and God the Creator, and a conviction that the appropriation of works by other artists would result in a magical transfer of artistic powers.”

-Timothy Anglin Burgard on Picasso’s use of appropriation

Burgard, Timothy Anglin. "Picasso and Appropriation." The Art Bulletin 73.3 (1991): 479-494. JSTOR. Web. 29 Sept. 2010. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/3045817>.

ARTICLES

Picasso is one of the greatest and most well known examples of use of appropriation. Go to http://www.jstor.org/stable/3045817 to read more.

Burgard, Timothy Anglin. "Picasso and Appropriation." The Art Bulletin 73.3 (1991): 479-494. JSTOR. Web. 29 Sept. 2010. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/3045817>.

Chinese philosopher writes about appropriation and flaws in mixing culture. Go to http://www.jstor.org/stable/30209982 to read more.

Young, James O. "Art, authenticity, and appropriation." Frontiers of Philosophy in Chine 1.3 (6): 455-476. JSTOR. Web. 29 Sept. 2010. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/30209982>.

There are many different ways to use appropriation, here are some famous examples: