OUGD505 - Product, Range & Distribution - Appropriation & Subversion

Defining Appropriation 

To appropriate means to take something for one's own use, typically without the owner's permission. This can be done in more ways than one, including cultural appropriation, parody and pastiche. This happens regularly in the creative sector, for social or political comment, to question authorship and authenticity, explore what art is or can be, to investigate process and making, or to question the value and meaning of mass culture. The subject of appropriation is often met with controversy, especially in regard to cultural appropriation through fashion.

Cultural Appropriation

Cultural appropriation namely defines the use of elements of one culture, most typically a minority culture, by members of another more dominant culture. These elements are used outside of their original cultural context, regularly against the expressly stated wishes of the originating culture. As a result, cultural appropriation is sometimes labelled cultural misappropriation due to the considered violation of the originating culture and the harm it causes them. Cultural appropriation can include using other cultures' fashion, symbols, language, traditions and music without permission. 

Parody

A parody is a work created to imitate, make fun of, or make comment on an original work,  be its author, subject or style, by means of satiric or ironic imitation.

Pastiche

Similarly to a parody, a pastiche is also a piece of work that imitates the style or character of an original work by an artist(s), however instead celebrates rather than mocks the work it imitates.

Examples of Appropriation

Perhaps one of the greatest subjects of appropriation within the design industry are Andy Warhol's 1960's silk-screen prints featuring Marilyn Monroe. Andy Warhol is best-known for his stylization of imagery derived from brands, logos, pictures and newspaper articles, reflecting the popular culture of the time by re-stylizing ready-made images (typically with repetition or the addition of colours) to transform them into works of his own. 

Andy Warhol: Marilyn Diptych, 1962.

Warhol's works have been reimagined, repeated and reinvented endlessly since their production in the 1960's by artists including Richard Pettibone, Elaine Sturtevant, David LaChappelle and acclaimed street-artist Banksy. Each appropriation of the original work(s) attempts to better reflect the culture and time of re-creation, with even the original artwork by Warhol himself arguably an appropriation of the photographer's original image of Marilyn - a publicity shot by Gene Korman for the film Niagara, made in 1953. 

For example, Banksy's 'Kate Moss, 2005' is undeniably inspired by Warhol's Marilyn, however instead of Monroe used world-renowned supermodel Kate Moss, reflecting that time's equivalent of Marilyn in terms of fame and prominence within popular culture. Also, David LaChapelle's 'Amanda As Marilyn, 2007' re-analyses Warhol's work through the medium of photography.

Richard Pettibone: Andy Warhol, "Marilyn Monroe," 1964, 1968.

Elaine Sturtevant: Warhol's Marilyn Monroe, 1924-2004.

Amanda As Marilyn (Red) By David LaChapelle, 2007.

Banksy: Kate Moss, 2005.

Another example of parody and pastiche comes in the form of Walker Evans' 'Alabama Tenant Farmer Wife, 1936,' or more specifically the works produced by Sherrie Levine and Michael Mandiberg respectively thereafter. 

Walker Evans: 'Alabama Tenant Farmer Wife, 1936.'

In 1936 Walker Evans photographed the Burroughs, a family of sharecroppers in Depression era Alabama. In 1979 in Sherrie Levine rephotographed Walker Evans' photographs from the exhibition catalog 'First and Last' to produce the series entitled 'After Walker Evans.' This became a landmark of post-modernism - though received criticism as a 'feminist hijacking of patriarchal authority, a critique of the commodification of art, and an elegy on the death of modernism.' Despite the criticism, the series also received praise from those who identified the series' representation of our inability to create meaning and recapture the past. 

Sherrie Levine: 'After Walker Evans, 1979.' 

In 2001 Michael Mandiberg scanned the same photographs before creating AfterWalkerEvans.com and AfterSherrieLevine.com to 'facilitate their dissemination as a comment on how we come to know information in this burgeoning digital age.'


In regard to cultural appropriation, earlier this month model Gigi Hadid featured on the first ever cover of Vogue Arabia wearing a hijab, and despite being half-Palestinian, was subject to much backlash as her featuring was said to be 'appropriating' of the culture. This backlash has prompted speculation and conversation of the topic, as Hadid's father is Palestinian - making many question whether her featuring on the cover is cultural appropriation or entirely relevant. 

Gigi Hadid on cover of Vogue Arabia.