For my appropriation brief i have created two different images using appropriation to alter an already existing image and to sort of parody an advertisement image to give the images different meanings. The two images as related to current affairs which are currently or have recently been a major story in the mainstream media within this country. I didn’t want the change of message to be subtle but to be blatantly obvious so the meaning is not lost on anyone and the changes made to not be the most professional of jobs.
My first picture i wanted to do something with a political message and even though the elections in the us provide an easy target i wanted to keep the issue close to home. For this i took an image of Jeremy Corbyn of the labour party from a party conference and changed the words on his stand say ”straight talking communism” and re purpose the red backdrop to become the soviet flag with Stalin and Lenin beside him as my idea of showing his sometimes far left political ideology.
For my second picture i also wanted to create an image that tackled with the issue of the sugar tax that has just been passed. For this i had the idea of taking the advertisement images of a soft drink being poured into a glass but change the substance coming out of it to pure sugar granules with a line of sugar next to the glass with a card standing by it. This was my idea of showing the sort of addiction that some people have to fizzy drinks and for one of the reasons why the sugar tax was passed.
Appropriation in art and art history refers to the practice of artists using pre-existing objects or images in their art with little transformation of the original.
The most infamous/famous appropriation photographer is Richard Prince. He is most known for his on the edge use of appropriation which has caused controversy at the time because of what he defines as appropriation. His most famous work Cowboy was the first photo to sell over one million dollars even though it was just a cut out of a cowboy originally from a Marlborough advertisement. One of his more newer pieces of work involved him taking screenshots from an instagram gallery called ”Suicide girls” where he took the images and scaled them up in size to give them an apparent new meaning.
An influence for me in this brief i found was with the artist Gregg Deal. He normally deals with the issue of the plight of the native Americans and creates art with obvious messages that deal with current issues regarding the treatment and representation of native Americans.
http://www.takepart.com/photos/native-re-appropriation-gallery
His obvious messages that are within his work is what influenced me to do the images that i did but i did not copy his style of almost cartoon like graphics for people and the stylised background that are also prevalent in his other works.
Reflection
This brief was my real first introduction into photography having previously never studying it before coming to university. The brief allowed me to have fun with the work as the use of appropriation was open to poke fun at current issues.
This brief has also given me the chance to work with photo editing software for the first time with a fun brief being a good way to start to get to grips with the software resources that were available to me.
My final images i believe are appropriate to the brief as i have re purposed and changed the message of already existing images to re-contextualise them with the first one to show what could be underlying Corbyns political stance and the second one to show that fizzy drinks are like an addictive substance.