Context

These two images have been appropriated in order to change both their meaning, as well as their context – both of my final images have been edited for this to be achieved. The first image featured has simply been cropped to change the entire meaning of the original image. Before being cropped, the image was a piece of propaganda from the Second World War, persuading people to follow wartime nutrition (rationing) by not wasting food and eating it all. By simply cropping out all over the text featured on the poster, the entire meaning and context of the image has been changed. For example, it can no longer be seen as a piece of propaganda.

The second image are two images that have been merged together; the Jurassic Park logo and the famous Barrack Obama ‘Hope’ poster. Despite neither of the original photographs link, photshopping them together has added similarities between them – the colour scheme, for example, is very similar on both pieces of work, with red being a prominent colour.

Influences

Richard Prince is an American photographer and one of the most famous appropriation artists in the world; his 2005 piece of work entitled ‘Cowboy’ (pictured above), was the first ‘re-photograph’ to raise over a million dollars at auction – all the work consisted of was a Marlboro cigarette advert with the companies’ logo and all of the text cropped out.

Despite being a photographer, he apparently had very little experience with photography at the beginning, which makes a lot of sense, as the majority of his work is appropriated. His work ‘Cowboy’ features in a series of work called ‘Cowboys’, where he took other Marlboro adverts and cropped out everything, leaving just the ‘Marlboro Man’.

Due to various laws against cigarette advertising, I have not grown up seeing smoking advertisements. So, when looking at this image for the first time, I could not recognise it, and so the context and the meaning of the picture had completely changed from my viewpoint. However, if an older member of society were to be shown this picture, it is more likely that they would recognise it. Because of this, the appropriated image is more effective when shown to someone of my age.

Looking at the image for the first time, I personally thought it was simply an image of a painted picture. The image has been framed well, with the cowboy (the main aspect of the image) on a third. However, other than this, there is nothing else that really catches the eye – it simply seems like a normal painting. It is in fact the context of the image what makes it such an interesting piece of work.

In recent times, Richard Prince has continued with his appropriation work. In 2014, he exhibited his Instagram feed, by showcasing topless images of models, artists, and celebrities. He provided comments with copyright and registered trademark symbols – referring to various copyright issues he has encountered in his career. In 2015, he then sold enlargements of his Instagram feed and comments for $90,000.

Barbara Kruger is another appropriation artist, but her work is very different to Richard Prince’s. Her work is often said to ‘interpret consumer society’; it typically combines black and white photography, usually of famous ‘celebrities’ overlaid with text in a red and white typeface. People often believe her work is politically driven, for example, one her pieces of work can be seen above; it is a picture of Hitler with the words: ‘If you don’t controll your mind, someone else will’. The image presumably refers to Adolf Hitler controlling the minds of the German people in the 1930s, suggesting that people need to think for themselves, instead of letting someone else control their choices.

Despite currently being over 70 years old, Barbara Kruger continues to create pieces of appropriated work. In 2010, a piece of her work featured on the cover of W Magazine, featuring a naked picture of reality TV star, Kim Kardashian.

I personally don’t like Barbara Kruger’s work very much; despite being art, it is hard to see it as such, as Kruger creates her pieces often to send out a message, rather than to allow people to appreciate it. Even though the white font upon red blocks looks nice against the images she appropriates, anyone could compose a similar piece of work. I am also not that interested in politics, which seems to be at the centre of lots of her work. I prefer Richard Prince’s work, because it takes advantage of pieces of art that technically do not belong to an artist, and he instead claims it for himself.

First Attempt

My first attempt at appropriating an image helped influence one of my final images. As can be seen above, I took the famous ‘Jaws’ film poster, and simply cropped out all the text that features on the original film poster. This results in what looks like a painting of a shark, about to attack an unaware woman who is swimming. However, despite altering the context of the image, I felt as if the meaning of the image had not really changed, even though all of the text had been removed and the image no longer looks like a film poster. This is because the meaning of the image is to show a shark about to attack a woman, which is exactly what the original makers of the film poster intended it to be. I also felt as if the image itself is far too popular and well known for it to be appropriated successfully. Even without the film’s title and actors, I believe people will still be able to easily recognise the image as being from the film poster for the film ‘Jaws’, due to it being such an iconic film and film poster.

Nonetheless, I liked the idea of using famous film iconography and appropriating it to change its meaning, hence why I use Jurassic Park’s logo in one of my final appropriated images. However, as I thought it would work best with well known, popular film posters and logos, I felt it would be better to merge the film images with other famous images, to change both the context and the meaning. This would allow people to recognise the aspects of the film logo, for example, but notice that it has been altered to change its meaning entirely.

Second Attempt

My second attempt at appropriating images features a piece of World War II propaganda. The original poster is trying to persuade people to join the army, by featuring a union jack in the centre, surrounded by text; “It’s our flag, fight for it, work for it”. To appropriate this image, I once again cropped out all of the text that was featured on the original poster. This changes the context of the piece as it can no longer be seen a piece of wartime propaganda.

However, removing the text simply makes the image an artistic union jack, which I personally believe does not give an interesting meaning or context, in comparison to the original meaning and context. Nonetheless, once again, I liked the idea of using propaganda from the Second World War so decided to find and use a different poster, that I felt could be used to create a more interesting meaning and context, in one of my final appropriated images

Reflection

I feel as if I have engaged with this brief successfully. Images are appropriated, mainly to alter the meaning and context of the original photo, by either editing or cropping it to change it slightly. I feel as though I have achieved this. The first image, featuring the cropped World War II propaganda, has been cropped to change the meaning of the image entirely.

Looking at the original image above, it is easily recognisable as a piece of propaganda. However, once all the text has been removed, unless people are very familiar with Second World War propaganda, people will not be able to notice that it is propaganda that has been cropped. Now all the image features is an artistic style of a plate with bones on, cutlery, empty glass and a napkin. I like the appropriated image as I feel like it looks like a piece of art, and perhaps could be sold as such, just like Richard Prince did with his previously mentioned work, entitled ‘Cowboy’. Richard Prince’s work is what inspired me the most to appropriate this image; if both of the images are put side-by-side, there are noticeable similarities between the two. To my knowledge, after some light research, both of the images are not published paintings by an artist, but, just like Richard Prince did, could be sold on as pieces of art, simply by appropriating the original images.

My second appropriated image, featuring the Jurassic Park logo and the famous Barack Obama ‘Hope’ poster, has also changed the meaning of the images entirely. Despite one being a famous movie logo, the other being a political poster and neither of the images linking, I personally believe that they go together well, especially as red is a major colour in both of the original pieces. The theme and style of the images have merged together well to create an image that looks reasonable.

Out of the two images, this image is my favourite. Not only because it was harder to do than the other one, but I believe it looks real, even though it is two images edited together. The context of the image is also interesting. Obviously, a poster referring to president of the United States, Barack Obama, due to the current climate within American politics, has never been so relevant – Donald Trump is the current president-elect and many Americans are worried about the future of their country, and despite the original ‘Hope’ poster being a few years old, it can still be applied today.

The other image is easily recognisable, due to how popular the Jurassic Park series of films have been over the years, with a recent addition in the last year. The original film is adored by many people, so paired together with the message of hope, an overall positive feeling regarding my appropriated image can be created.

Overall, I found this brief quite a challenging one. Firstly, even though Richard Prince’s work inspired me, it was hard not to completely copy his ideas. But, I felt choosing a category such as propaganda, that does not necessarily have any intellectual property rights, would create a successful piece of work. And even though my second appropriated image consists of two images, completely unrelated and mashed together, I feel that it fits and works – I am pleased with what I have completed and believe I have covered the requirements of the brief.