In Richard Serra’s text, he is saying that the traditional idea of the artist’ studio has been replaced with industrial and urban sites. The way that sculptures were made before the mid-century was manifested through a relationship that the sculptor had with their studio.

Although sculptors may now be mass manufacturing artwork in factories etc., they don’t pay any attention to the habitat where they are creating the pieces or their history, for instance, the industrial revolution. Some artists have based an entire career on mass producing artwork, such as Andy Warhol, and in Serra’s words, ‘by mimicking the strategies of the media, Warhol became the master of art as a commercial enterprise.’

In the 1990’s when this piece was written by Serra, some of the most famous artists were Damian Hirst and Rachel Whiteread. This article could’ve been aimed at them as sculptors, with Serra implying that artists don’t have a relationship between the site where the piece was created and where they may have been relocated.

In “From Other Criteria” by Leo Steinberg, he is very focused on how artists compose their pieces in relation to the natural human form. He states that ‘It is not the actual physical placement of the image that counts.’ This is because in his mind, the piece is positioned as portrait or landscape due to how the artist created it in terms of their form.

Art in 1970’s New York was changing and performance art was becoming very popular, which explains why Steinberg decided to write about the human form in relation to artwork. The way that art was rapidly changing and adapting meant that critics were struggling to determine what was art and what wasn’t.

In order to appropriate a piece of my own artwork, I decided to cut and paste the Apple logo over the face of the woman I had drawn. I wanted to do a modern take on  ‘The Son Of Man’ (1946)  by Rene Magritte.

The process wasn’t very difficult as I just layered the apple logo over the face of my drawing and then cropped the image down in Microsoft Word. I did consider neatening up the logo more and getting rid of the plain white areas around the apple but I thought that actually the white space worked with what I wanted the artwork to convey.

The simple cut and paste job over the drawing that I’d worked on for a long time is meant to represent the 21st century and how our generation only care about what brands are popular with their peers. It is about capitalism and commercialism. The original painting by Magritte is one that most people recognise instantly and that’s why I wanted to playfully change it a bit.

I hope that this reworked image will make people think about how they spend money on things just for the brand, and about how all of this makes things difficult for independent artists and traders.

If I had more time to dedicate to this project I would really like to paint the apple myself and make it look pixelated so that it has a bit more depth to it.

10 words I would associate with my work:

1. Colourful
2.  Morbid
3. Gothic
4. Symbolic
5. Floral
6. Death
7. Contrast
8. Macabre
9. Illustrative
10. Baroque

I have chosen this image as a representation of my work because I feel that it includes all of the elements that I usually have in my artwork. I am influenced very heavily by Pre-Raphaelite art, tattoo art and the symbolism movement.

There are usually symbolic imagery in my artwork that represent death; this is because death and mortality is something that has played a huge role in my life and changed me as a person. I choose to make these images bright and colourful, sometimes to make it ironic and sometimes to make it quite macabre. It is entirely how the audience views it.

The most prominent colours in my artwork are purples, blues, pinks and greens. I like to include colours associated with femininity. These colours are also present in most of my tattoos and so it is like I am becoming part of my art and vice versa.

Due to being self taught and the only art qualification I have been an Art Foundation, my art tends to be quite illustrative. It is not always accurate or proportionate but I don’t think this is an important aspect of art, it is the message it conveys.

Music, film and books play a big part in the artwork that I make, as whatever I am listening to/reading/watching helps me to convey a mood to the audience often subconsciously. If I am watching something about serial killers it tends to make my artwork darker, if I am listening to music from the 1970’s I tend to use brighter, psychedelic colours.

Due to the subject of this exhibition, I was very nervous and also intrigued about what I might see when viewing the artwork.

The exhibition comprised of a variety of different styles of artwork, from paintings to textiles. Included was a famous painting of Muhammad Ali by Andy Warhol. One piece that I found particularly moving was ‘Fred Hampton’s Door 2’ (1975) by Dana C Chandler – the bullet holes in the door were chilling, especially with recent events like Donald Trump being elected as president and with the volume of African American men being shot and killed for no reason. It is shocking that although this piece is from 1975 not much has really changed at all.

Another piece that I really enjoyed was ‘Revolutionary’ (1972) by Wadsworth Jarrell. The bright colours really capture the psychedelic movement of the time. Although the woman in the painting at first glance looks to be singing, with words such as ‘struggle’ and ‘I have given my life’ could mean that she is in fact screaming.

After leaving the exhibition I was incredibly emotional – although I have always been outraged at how the police have treated black people, actually seeing the artwork from the time really made the connection deeper. It was seeing all of the art from the time of these events that brought it to life.