Lecture 3, 11th october 2011
Where do we draw the line at stealing someone’s ideas?
From this lecture, I have decided to expand upon the 2
1 – Notions of Originality
2 – Cultural Context
Notions of Originality
Many artist’s works have been an obvious inspiration for other artist’s works…
The visual idea of some works is strongly present in some re-creations.
We usually see this in advertising, in the media in general, and in parodies.
One example is Dali’s “The Persistence of Memory”. It has been used as inspiration for advertising Volkswagen and Lipton Ice Tea.
Although you can clearly see the reference to the original artwork, they have created their own originality due to the new intention and audience.
The original – ‘The Persistence of Memory’ – Salvador Dali
Lipton Ice Tea Advertisement :
Volkswagen Advertisement :
Another example of this is photographer Gillian Wearing.
Her first major work, ‘Signs that say what you want them to say and not signs that say what someone else wants you to say’ consisted of a series of photographs each showing a member of the public who Gillian had stopped on the street and persuaded to write something on a piece of paper. She then photographed the person holding the paper.
Examples of her work :
In 1998, Gillian Wearing accused Volkswagen’s advertising agency of plagiarising her work for its latest ad campaign.
The VW advert consisted of people holding paper signs that express how they really feel in contrast to their appearance.
Other obvious Gillian Wearing pastiches :
The context of a piece of work can be altered dramatically by the culture behind it, such as the time/era, place in the world, audience and intention.
For example, Claude Monet painted ‘Bridge Over a Water Lily Pond’ in 1899.
Modern artist Banksy made a parody of this artwork in 2003, he adapted it to include urban detritus such as litter and shopping trollies floating in its waters, as that is more relevent to our modern society and addresses the issue of pollution and the decline of the English countryside.
Monet’s Original :
Banksy’s version :