For the appropriation task I wanted to take this sinister looking drawing and include words that could truly lift this drawing to new atmospheric heights, by including the lettering found on ordinary playing cards around the globe. The typographical face is such a common thing that by introducing it to my own work and appropriating as such, it lends it’s meaning to my work and allows my own to grow from it’s archaic themes. I have included the two images, one quite obviously being the Joker from a deck of cards, whereas the other is a drawing i’ve done which includes the signature ‘JOKER’ lettering.

While appropriation in art has been around for ages, it began to gain popularity in the 20th century. Most notably with “Dada” artists like Marcel Duchamp, who championed the art of the “ready mades”. Andy Warhol continued the tradition of appropriation, but the times were changing, and borrowing images to create new ones became more controversial with the onset of consumerism.

Consumerism is the bane of society, it’s most probable everyone has owned such deck of cards in there existence, so it could certainly be said that by appropriating these ready made exerts into my own work that I’d be relinquished of my newly produced work immediately. I think that by indoctrinating such work into my own, it adds to the overall quality and due to it being so commonly found it’s therefore directly in our mass consciousness.

Revolver Gallery. 2017. Andy Warhol and the Art of Appropriation. [ONLINE] Available at: http://revolverwarholgallery.com/andy-warhol-art-appropriation/. [Accessed 06 December 2017].

Firstly, we’re on the verge of becoming swallowed up by our own greed and consumerist attitudes. Rubbish, is a major problem in todays society, the whole reuse, recycle and reduce headline has been well overspent. On the horizon, is a wave of trash that we will eventually consume us all.

It is therefore essential for us to develop a means of using trash as a way of symbolising our own consumerist attitudes. My practice, would involve building sculptures/installations from our own trash, which would allow us on a more personal level to understand just how much we use as a group or as an individual. We must consume less and live more! By taking all this trash, it is highly likely we could build from this a detailed image, which when produced would not only highlight our own downfalls, but on a wider scale, on an international level.

It’s a way of taking junk and creating a process which responds to our consumerist ideology, now this could be done as a community project, you could accumulate a months worth of trash and allow everyone to take part in creating a tall sculpture of a human being standing tall. As the light breaks, a shadow could be cast, now this could show how we’re being progressive in such dire times, but it also leaves room for us to question exactly what sort of future we want to have as the human species moves forward into climatic times.

I’ve decided to write about Van Gogh self-portrait (1889) due to the significant impact it had on me at such a prolific time in my own personal life. Gogh created many self-portraits over his short career, due to his financial situation he was unable to hire models to sit for him, but on an introspective level this allowed him to fine tune his painting skills, but also to ask the necessary questions about ones own identity.

At first glance upon visiting this piece, we’re struck with this character who is quite anxiously well prepared in his suit. The emerald green that projects from the subjects eyes strikes us with this demoralizing tone, that could quite honestly make us as the viewer question our own sense of identity as

Self-Portrait 1889 Oil on canvas H. 65; W. 54.5 cm Paris, Musée d’Orsay Gift of Paul and Marguerite Gachet, the children of Dr Gachet, 1949© Musée d’Orsay, dist.RMN-Grand Palais / Patrice Schmidt

I’ve decided to look at the rise of pop art during the 50’s and most notably the 60’s. It started to gain traction during the 60’s throughout Britain and the United states. Artists that were active in this particular movement were drawing inspiration from there surroundings, our consumerist culture, so by taking imagery from mass culture they appropriated logos and imagery into there own work.

By focusing on mass produced works, Andy Warhol’s work would directly reflect the current state of mass communication in today’s society.

Young artists felt that what they were taught at art school and what they saw in museums did not have anything to do with their lives or the things they saw around them every day. Instead they turned to sources such as Hollywood movies, advertising, product packaging, pop music and comic books for their imagery.

It is therefore evident that Pop Art rose to power through the innovative technologies of that time, those that allowed us to reproduce on a wider scale. It should be noted that a major key player that gave rise to such a movement was Dada. Dada wasn’t exactly an artistic style, it was a nihilistic movement that rejected the current state of affairs, those young artists that were involved were anti-war due to the concerns with rising political tensions across seas at that time. Dada was breaching on surrealism, they rejected logic, capitalist society and in direct reaction to WW1, they pushed with irrationality which quite obviously contrasts capitalistic agendas.

Interestingly, we can see a positive correlation between the views of dadaist’s and those within Marxisms. The idea that capitalism is nothing but a greedy machine that pushes and pulls us to whatever ends, shows how they both would much rather accept a new state of economic conditions. It is clear in Marxism that the rich really do get richer by having private ownership

In Karl Marx’s view, the capitalists would eventually accumulate more and more capital impoverishing the working class, creating the social conditions for a revolution that would overthrow the institutions of capitalism.

Encyclopedia Britannica. 2017. Pop art | Characteristics, Facts, & Artists | Britannica.com. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.britannica.com/art/Pop-art. [Accessed 06 December 2017].

Tate. 2017. Pop art – Art Term | Tate. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/p/pop-art. [Accessed 06 December 2017].

Anti-capitalism – Wikipedia. 2017. Anti-capitalism – Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-capitalism. [Accessed 06 December 2017].

For my chosen image, I have decided to investigate Barkley L. Hendricks painting of Tyrone Smith. (1976)

At first sight, we see a black male proudly splayed out across this dove white couch. The young man appears calm and collected, whist he pulls from his black and gold pipe. In a way, this indicates his social status, but what might baffle us as the viewer is why the subject appears completely exposed. Does this quite literally liberate the conventions of full sized portraiture from westernised past times, those that used to be dripping in robes and sought after goods. I believe, that this is completely intentional, that the artist is directly initialising this conversation for a better outlook on his society at that time.

This painting was executed at a time in America where a civil rights movement still echoes in the chamber, so it can be stated that Barkley was indeed opening the door to allow us as a society to grow. I believe that this artist has not received the recognition that should be received.

“One of the main aims of the black art movement in the 1970s and 80s in Britain was for artists to achieve recognition for their work, beyond issues of race and ethnicity… Today, the institutionalisation of diversity policies means that art is being sidelined, and in many cases black artists are first and foremost regarded as black. ” (Dyer, 2007, p.11)

To the viewer, even though Barkley spent a lot of time developing his photographical skills during his academic years, his style can not be seen as this cold clinical calculative approach, but more of a social realist painter, due to the fact that his work has a emotional element that speaks about very weighty and valid themes in conjunction with his own personal background.