Discuss How A Number Of Different Photographers Have Approached The Idea Of Using Appropriation In Terms Of Creating ‘Portrait’ Based Photographs Kate Wingrove In artistic terms, to appropriate means to properly adopt, borrow, recycle or sample aspects of objects or images for one's own use, typically without the owner's permission and with little or no transformation applied to it. The word appropriation refers to the use of borrowed or secondary elements in the creation of a new piece of work. The use of appropriation has played a significant role in the history of the arts (literary, visual, musical and performing arts). The Tate Gallery traces the practise back to cubism and Dadaism but continuing into the 1940’s Surrealism and 1950’s Pop Art. It also returned to prominence in the 1980’s with the Neo-Geo artists including Ashley Bickerton and Peter Schuyff. As well as reflecting the appearance of a person, portrait photographs can also convey feelings and emotions which is important for advertisement. This is done by the projection of expression directed by the photographer and to the subject model which may convey a false feeling and emotion which does not reflect true perceptions. It is known that by looking at certain photographers work it is clear to see the true emotion behind the photographer themselves as this subconsciously becomes a fluent theme throughout their work. In terms of appropriation, when portraits are sliced and then reassembled as in the works of Daniel Gordon, it becomes difficult to understand emotions expressed by the model, although this may give us an insight to the photographer as his work may be conveying feelings of excitement and confusion signified by the colours and structure of his works.
Pablo Picasso In the early twentieth century Pablo Picasso was born October 25th 1881 in Málaga, Spain. Being one of the greatest and most influential artists of the twentieth century, Picasso has had an enormous impact on the art movement which still inspires artists and photographers to this present day. He and Georges Braque, a French painter and sculptor, appropriated various objects from a non-art setting into their work. In 1912, Picasso arranged a piece of oil cloth onto a canvas, following an arrangement of objects which led to the creation of ‘Guitar, Newspaper, Glass and Bottle (1913) in which Picasso used newspaper clippings to create formations which could be viewed as an abstract piece of work.
Robert Colesscott
Left: Robert Colesscott, Les Demoiselles d’Alabama, 1985 Right: Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, 1907
The image to the left is an example of contemporary appropriation in an art form in which artist Robert Colesscott has developed a famous painting influenced by Picasso although borrowing its narrative and arrangement. Colesscott had developed Picasso’s concept with hints of European influences. He made this famous image his own, in terms of colour and content by giving the subjects character and personality through the use of colour and cultural garments, whilst still making his inspiration clear. The historical reference to Picasso is evident, however this is undeniably the artist’s own work as Colesscott has incorporated his own influences which impacts viewers in a different way compared to Picasso’s piece. Matt Wisniewski Matt Wisniewski was born 1990 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and currently spends his time between New York and Rochester, where he is attending school at Rochester Institute of Technology. He is currently working on his degree in Computer Science. In terms of photography, Wisniewski had always been interested in visual media as quoted; “I’ve loved to experiment with new things since a young age”, which led this Brooklyn-based artist to translate his visions by combining elements of nature with photographic portraits to create striking and visually intriguing digital collages. Many people may agree that his work creates a perception showing the congruence we maintain with the natural elements we came from. Wisniewski commonly uses secondary images he discovers on the internet as in the past he had “been focused with work that’s easy to find” as he enjoys “online like photography”.
The procedure of his work begins with carefully selecting images from Tumblr and other online portfolios. He commonly uses natural elements as an overlay as they “tend to be a little simpler and fit together a bit more obviously with the portraits than urban elements.” A few experimental overlays later he continues until something captures his eye. “I decide that I want to go further on it and then clean that up”. When questioned about his unique style and how he became involved in this style of work, Wisniewski responded; “I’ve created things for as long as I can remember, really. The collage is just sort of something that happened as a result of that.” It is fair to say many may view Wisniewski’s images as being aesthetically pleasing due to the simplicities of them. Each expression or statute of the model in the portrait effectively correspond to the colours, detail and natural images which have been collaged to create the overlay. The aim of his work is to create surreal images by creating digital collages which blends fashion and beauty with nature in an organised fashion where they both compliment and reflect tranquil connotations. Others may agree that his work emanates a dreamlike essence that has the sense that it could be connected to a world of dreams, hence the ethereal links and ghostly opacity to his layers of collages. When categorising the young artist, many people might agree that his works could be placed under portrait, landscape, appropriation and digital collage. Wisniewski sometimes uses his own photography, however often uses source images and ‘found’ images which is at ease and less time consuming. Multiple exposure photography can be risky and it is very time consuming, while Photoshop is literally mistake free. A correction can be made with the click of a mouse, which is much easier than traditional media. In an interview Wisniewski states that he does all his work in Photoshop because “even when using my own photography in-camera multiple exposures are hit or miss and give me a lot less control.” At this time there is only one image on his website that uses his own photography. Using source images is extremely useful when it comes to time constraints. He is able to cut production times by a significant amount, giving him more time to re-search images and experiment. He also gets highresolution files from other artists who are interested in collaborating with him. Luca Mainini The Italian writer, artist and photographer Luca Mainini is not afraid to push the boundaries when it comes to his work. His visual art concept is outrageous, bright and wild as he frequently
interchanges the human body with beauty products and distorts them. Mainini, a self-described “pop voyeur” is currently employed at Jet Sat as an illustrator and has submitted work for clients including; Dolce & Gabbana, Givenchy, Vincent, Thom Browne and Sylvio Giardina. Among designing for his clients, he also finds time for himself to further experiment and add to his own repertoire, creating incredibly audacious collages. One of his collections titled ‘Psycho Diva’ number 1-4, consist of a successions of model body parts intertwined together with attractive objects which possess positive connotations which coincide with the female image such as; nail polish bottles, lipstick and flowers. The images he creates toy with notions of artifice and authenticity and can be seen to be artistically satisfying is how they appear lively and are visually stimulating in terms of the cut outs varying in tones which juxtapose against each other which gives the creations a 3D effect, adding complexity.
Cris Brodahl Cris Brodahl was born in 1963 in Ghent, Belgium where she still continues to work, is a contemporary visual artist. Cris Brodahl has been shown internationally in exhibitions such as Electric Blue at Xavier Hufkens in Brussels, Cut at The Approach in London, Michael Bauer, Cris Brodahl, Stef Driesenat Marc Foxx in Los Angeles and The Triumph of Painting at the Saatchi Gallery in London. She is represented by Xavier Hufkens in Brussels, The Approach Gallery in London and Marc Foxx in Los Angeles.
Brodahl's paintings are based on collages she makes from magazine images. She gathers images related to art, photography and history, clippings from interior design or fashion magazines, film stills and recently photos she has taken herself. She then uses these images to craft her own distinctive of the current world in a surreal way. Her work is achieved using monochromatic shades of sepia, grey or black and white, however some of her paintings also contain texture from collaged elements such as gold leaf and incisions through images. Her worked is often marked by two things; death and slogans.
BIBLIOGRAPHY http://mattw.us/images/
http://lightbox.time.com/2012/02/02/dreamscapes-matt-wisniewskis-digital-collages/#3 http://issuu.com/wetheurban/docs/wetheurbanissue4/95 http://designtonicmag.com/2012/matt-wisniewski/ http://www.yatzer.com/Matt-Wisniewski-talks-to-yatzer http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/nature-infused-human-beings http://www.lucamainini.com/ http://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/art-luca-mainini http://www.excelsiormilano.com/en/category/events/news/322/luca-mainini http://miista.com/luca-mainini/ http://culest.wordpress.com/2013/ http://www.saatchigallery.com/artists/cris_brodahl.htm http://www.marcfoxx.com/artists/2885 http://www.xavierhufkens.com/artists/cris-brodahl YES http://www.thefoxisblack.com/2011/05/11/cris-brodahl/ http://www.theapproach.co.uk/artists/cris-brodahl/biography https://www.frieze.com/issue/article/cris_brodahl/