For the first part of this module we had to look at appropriation and create three images of our own using appropriation. This is a process that involves taking an image, photograph or a piece of artwork and putting it into a different context or changing the image to alter it’s original meaning.
For my pieces I tried to think about what images are iconic and instantly recognisable and current events and finding a way to mix the two together. My best example of this thought process was the piece I made combining the Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci and photos of migrants in the Calais Migrant Camp. These are the separate photos I used for the piece.
I combined these images together on Adobe photoshop and manipulated the images slightly to create the following final product.
It’s certainly not a perfect rendition of my idea but I think it works fairly well. Aside from the french connection between the three opposing images, the point I was trying to convey was that the media, prominent politicians and general society are not seeing migrants as individual human beings in need of help. They are seeing them as a collective or a ‘bunch of migrants’ (David Cameron). This is depriving them of their humanity. So in this image I wanted to give a migrant one of the most recognisable faces in the world to act as a juxtaposition between being part of a collective and an individual. There is this huge camp in France full of people in need of help but we are not seeing them as an individual.
For my second piece I used this same idea of juxtaposition again. This time I combined images of the pyramids of Giza with a new Disneyland park in construction in China.
Combining these on photoshop gave me this final image.
With this image I was trying to make a comment on the spread of capitalism and the increasing power of massive conglomerates like Disney. The image of the castle being constructed is from a new construction in China that will be the biggest park ever. This piece is an exaggeration of the spread of capitalism. The imposing of American culture on the world. The best way to represent this, in my eyes, was to utilise a historic cultural wonder and show the castle as being bigger and looming over it, reclaiming the land. The new wonders in the world are products of a powerful unelected corporation.
For my final image I looked more to current events in the media world. I decided to focus on the controversy behind the Oscars this year where many black actors and actresses are now boycotting the event because of lack of diversity in the nominations. To create an image that reflects these events I used the following constituent parts.
I combined these and placed them to create this.
The 5 gold statues represent the 5 nominations for best actor or actress this year. The black trophy is then symbolic of the exclusion of anyone other than a white person. I’m not sure where I stand on this controversy myself, I personally think the Oscar voting membership probably does have too large a percentage of old white men but at the same time you shouldn’t have quotas for awards nominations otherwise it’s practically positive discrimination. However as this is a recent event and uses iconic imagery of it’s trophies I thought it would be an interesting piece to make. Here I’ve more utilised subtle form, you can see the black trophy is separate in distance showing it’s outside of the group and also it is facing away from them which is representative of the subsequent boycott. It looks disinterested in the other trophies which works I think because actors like Will Smith and director Spike Lee have chosen not to attend the awards themselves.
You can see within this picture how precise Penn is. He delivers a photo that is framed perfectly and it’s contrast is crisp and draws your eyes straight to her face. It is an amazing picture.
