In preparation for my first Appropriation image I took to Lincoln High Street in order to try and look for some inspiration and try to capture an everyday image that I could transform. I looked at a lot of company/shop logos, taking pictures using my mobile phone for images to look at and transform later.

I initially wanted to resist the cliche’ ‘Large corporations are ruining the Earth and destroying Society’ typical Student-esque idea of being anti-something within my work. Though some of the best pieces of artwork are often against a particular course or represent rebellion against something larger than itself…however then I saw the Starbucks logo…

As cliche’ as the idea remained in my head, the opportunities and inspiration that came to me almost immediately was overwhelming. I had to appropriate this logo into my work. Now, because Starbucks is everywhere (to the point where ‘Strabucking’ has become a common phrase for companies who succumb to mass inflation) – I wanted to represent this within my image. Again Shephard Fairey’s work such as his ‘OBEY’ posters featuring a stylistic promotional image of Andre the Giant, inspired my initial idea. At first I intended to isolate the illustration within the Starbucks logo and incorporate it into a similar poster, with a word such as ‘DRINK’ instead of ‘OBEY’.

This way, the black and white illustration (similar in style to the Andre the Giant image) would take on a more sinister association – with the crown on the woman representing the look of a hierarchical or status-lead dictatorship, ordering members of the public to ‘DRINK’ the brand shown – a brand so synonymous in modern society that only the illustration is needed to have the context known. I proceeding in creating my own version of the image within photoshop, using the photograph I had taken on my phone. However, the further I got into it, the more I fell out of love with the idea. My Photoshop skills are non-existent, and therefore I didn’t think I was able to do the idea justice, combined with the fact that each photo of the logo I used became incredibly blurry no matter how large the initial photo became. Although I finished the image itself, I don’t think I decided not to use this as one of my appropriated images as I was unhappy with the execution of the idea. The striking colours (White on Black, White on Red) work well however as they do in the original version to create an intimidating and at first confusing order to the audience.

Moving on, I wanted to continue the idea of Starbuck’s universal takeover (if you will) when it struck me to take the idea literally within my work. It was then that I found images of the Planet Earth from the Moon, startling and alien (pardon the pun) images on their own that almost leave an audience questioning their own importance when seeing things on such a small scale. The unknown landscape here confused me before I found the context of the image, and fascinated me once I did. The negative space of…well, space itself isolated Earth in the background, immediately drawing the eye and registering a sense of isolation which is something I wanted to take advantage of within my image.

See? It even blends into the background here and takes a moment to register just how amazing the image is…so for me it was the perfect opportunity to appropriate it and ruin it, in a way. I used Photoshop to insert the Starbucks logo into the place of Earth, literally Starbucking our planet. I decided to keep the shadow over half of the image, to again initially confused people who look at my appropriated version (especially when they don’t have the Earth to guide them to what the image is) which will hopefully make it stick into peoples’ minds. Unfortunately though again, my lack of Photoshop skills means that I was unable to do the image justice but I don’t think it came out badly. The idea is still a nice little one, whilst the image itself remains interesting and hopefully thought-provoking.

Appropriation Art is essentially the process of using and utilizing images or objects that already exist (think stealing but more legal – slightly) and changing their context or meaning by use of as little transformation to the original image as possible. As appropriation has been a staple of the arts for many years now, countless artists use this process, Andy Warhol’s entire career was based on the use of appropriation whilst even artists such as Pablo Picasso had their go at re-contextualizing images using the process.

For my first Photography module brief I must create three appropriation images using photographs and imagery I have found either personally or online. To ensure my images work I must note the changes in context and meaning of the images, and talk about how I have edited them to fit the appropriation brief.

However, before starting my work I must research into other pieces of appropriation that inspires me:

ANDY WARHOL

As a pop-artist, Andy Warhol strove against themes such as advertising and celebrity culture with his work. He often used pop-culture images and well-known objects within his working and twisting them to form a comment on the culture he was using.

 ‘ Marilyn Diptych’ (1962)  is a famous painting by Andy Warhol in which, after her death,  Warhol appropriated a publicity still from the film Niagra and multiplied it, exaggerating  the colours by painting over them and then fading and dissolving the proportionate images  on the right, in order to show her more human features – as opposed to the ‘perfect image’  she brought across within the Mass Media. This was not done in spite however, and is in  fact an homage to the woman herself.

I like the juxtaposing sides of this piece and the meaning Warhol had behind it, though he has in fact done very little to the original image it has still gone on to become one of the most influential pieces of modern art ever. The idea of multiplying images, as if mass-marketed appeals to me and is something that I may choose to look into for my own images.

 

Shepherd Fairey’s now-iconic appropriation piece used for Barack Obama’s 2008 Presidential campaign is one of the most widely-used imageson the internet, the ‘cartoonification’ (making that word up) of Obama’s image is visually striking after the colour transformation that it became a part of pop culture history. The use of colour here is incredibly memorable, and the use of a pivotal promotional image is an idea that I could translate into my own work. As Obama became associated with Hope, why couldn’t I make something associated with someone else?

However, with the rise of buffoonery on the internet (and our love for, ahem, randomness), appropriation is almost unknowingly a common thing for the average internet user thanks to the introduction of ‘Meme’ images. A meme is essentially a stupid joke created with no original content or images, all of the comedy comes from the use of images that have already been taken. This can include taking things out of context, inserting images into others or just adding text that completely changes the dynamic of the image itself. Whilst most of these are juvenile pieces of entertainment that make you chuckle for about three seconds, they change the context of an image so much that they’re too powerful to be ignored. Comedy is something I’d be interested in trying with my images, though I doubt that my use of appropriation would be simplistic enough to certify in the same company as memes.