I have always liked “The birth of Venus” by Sandro Botticelli. I decided to appropriate this piece of work by painting features of my own style on top of the existing image. Those features that I painted also resemble the work of George Condo as I work with similar techniques therefore appropriating a second artist in this piece.

This process of painting on top of the printed photograph was inspired by the Chapman brothers and their work on Goya’s etchings. I also wanted purposely shock by vandalising this piece, doing that by painting on top of simple A4 paper. using regular paper also takes away the preciousness of the work. I continued to vandalise the piece by tearing a hole in it. If I could change anything, I would love have done this on a bigger scale.

What makes this new work interesting is that it is a combination of old and contemporary art, realism and cubism. The combination of the two different elements that are obvious makes the work relatively attractive to look at.  This would also trigger the viewer to want to find all the changes/details and carefully observe the whole piece.

The Birth of Venus 2.0, Acrylic on Inkjet printed A4 paper.