Stealing?

The idea of appropriation is odd for me.
to be honest the first time it really entered my vocabulary was when i started art school.
I remember in a crit in my freshman year a student used the word stole/took the image from another source.
The student was instantly corrected by the professor, "you mean appropriated"
Now although, the term is alot better sounding than stealing or taking, but really it is not much different.
if you go from the strict definition of the word, it is wrapped in money, exchange, and a deliberate act of acquisition of something, often without the permission of the owner. The actual meaning of the words are not that seperate, but the use is vastly so. I think if you are an artist and you are using images and you are not taking images beyond their original context, if you cannot reintroduce an image with new syntax and understanding, than you are stealing. There are many examples of this, one that pops right to mind is richard prince, and his rephotographing of advertisements, most notalby so the marlboro man, which recently set a record price at auction. It is hard for me to reconcile my feelings over the work. Alot of me wants to instantly wash my hands with it and call it trite, but i can still see the validity in the idea and action of this photographer/painter in this age of image proliferation. Another example of this was photographer Sherrie Levine, that not just rephotographed existing images but images of well know and prominent photographs by walker evans. There is a slew of other artist especially out of this time period of the early 8o's that were into this idea of using existing image culture to point out realities that are masked by the very images that are used to imply them. This is where i can see appropriation being appropriate. AND i do say that those with no sin among you cast the first stone. I too struggle with this idea of using others images. I was very against the idea up until i started using video and sound, and the marraige between existing audio and footage and manipulating them to serve an anlternative image function seemed appropriate. Originality is an idea that is really hard to get ahold on. Is there nothing new under the sun? Are you not original if you come up with an idea completely independent of any influence, only to find out that a decade ago another artist on the other side of the world did the same thing?....I dont think so. I think images are a languge , a dialouge with a particular motive. Any image vocabulary that has existed should be able to be recalled, and redeployed to express or expose ideas. With the proliferate amont of image stimulation and bombarment that we have today, there must be reflection, this will give us the ablitiy to gain context, and with conxet we can have understanding, and with that a more clear and visible knowledge or the world spinning at an ever increasing rate around us...so i guess in close....STEAL,

HOPE not a dirty word

In class there was discussion, and this has come up before, of a disdain for A utopia. I would agree for the most part, as we know paradise found is paradise lost. But in the arts, as with most things that exist as a group, no matter how spread out they are this utopian idea to me boils down to HOPE. Reminds me of that sentiment " Aim for the moon and you will land among the stars", cheesy yes, but should we just have these hopes, dreams if you would. Dosent that simple imaginary gesture drive us give us energy and a since of purpose to pursue. Shouldnt hope father the future, or should we just submit to the failings of those who came before us. Should we just throw up our tired arms and scream dystopia, put our heads down and become stagnent, let the bacteria of apathy and the looming shadows of captitol pressure turn the clear, crisp, moving stream of creativity and community into a cespool of dispair. Art is at it's core an ability to rerender life, take it in and digest what goes on around us, both personally and universally. Having hope in the function of art keeps our slowly sinking noses above water. Dont mean to sound preachy...but we should find energy not apathay in our creative pursuits.