User:Jubeanation

"The creative act is not performed by the artist alone; the spectator brings the work in contact with the external world by deciphering and interpreting its inner qualifications and thus adds his contribution to the creative act."

Transformation The world we live in is not still; it is a developing, moving, living, ever-changing thing. This constant process of transformation, on emotional, physical, ideological and personal levels has provided artists with a constant source of inspiration. Artists have exploited the idea of transformation through countless methods. Japanese artist Yasumara Morimura uses appropriation to illustrate the changing and morphing boundaries of East and West and Male and Female, by manipulating his own image into his work. Cindy Sherman, an American artist, works in a similar method, using her own image to comment on contemporary feminist issues and the transforming role of women in modern society. Finally, Marcell Duchamp appropriated familiar objects by placing them in new contexts to give the piece new meaning.

Yasumasa Morimura develops work that commonly deals with themes of race and gender. In his piece self-portrait (Actress) after Marilyn Monroe, he appropriates himself into the famous image of Marilyn Monroe, pushing down her skirt as she stands over an air vent. The piece portrays Yasumara Morimura as Marilyn Monroe, wearing a white dress, standing over a blowing air vent, in one of the most famous images of Western society. The piece employs bright colour and an intence sense of movement, and verges on kitsch. Morimura’s choice to portray himself as an actress famed as a symbol of Western society is by no means a matter of coincidence. Through his artwork, he deconstructs famous images, and reconstructs them in a way that gives them new meaning, in order to portray a form of global identity. The images created explore not only his own identity, but the contemporary Japanese identity, relating to the way in which Globalisation and technology blurs the line between Eastern and Western cultures. Morimura’s art also expresses what may be considered a ‘Postmodernist’ identity. If a Modernist identity could be considered an identity with fixed concepts of gender, sexuality, Ethnicity and Nationality, then a postmodern identity expresses a state where such fixed concepts do not exist, and lines between ideas of concepts such as Male and Female and Eastern and Western are blurred, and open to transformation. These subjects relate closely to Morimura’s own background. A Japanese artist, he was born in 1951, growing up in a time where Japan was quickly soaking up Western culture. Self portrait (Actress) after Marilyn Monroe, is a piece typical of Yasumasa Morimura’s work, which often deals with themes of racial and gender based themes. By appropriating himself into an image of particular Western cultural significance, he gives the piece new meaning, expressing concepts of the transformation of identity.

Cindy Sherman is an American artist, who uses photography to explore themes of identity from a feminist perspective. Her work, Untitled Film still #6 is one of a series of works where she appropriated herself into the roles of stock characters in B-grade film. Untitled Film Still #6 is a black and white photograph, featuring Cindy Sherman lying on the ground in a long flowing nightgown, and underwear. The image is reminiscent of old B- Grade films. Through her clothing, makeup and hair, Sherman looks the part of the traditional heroine found in these films. Her pose is sexually suggestive, looking the part of the ‘sex kitten’. Sherman’s work is highly political. It explored the contemporary and historical role of women from a feminist perspective. Through her series of film stills she manages to explore the nature of the historical interpretation of female role, and the way in which that relates to her own personal identity. Her works relate to the male interpretation, and representation of the female, as seen specifically here in the male dominated film industry. By leaving her work untitled, she to depersonalizes it, avoiding giving the characters she portrays meaning on a personal level. Instead of representing individuals, she appropriates herself into the positions of feminine archetypes. Her images are not portraits of actual people, but are interpretations of types of people, demonstrated through the depiction of a fictional person. Untitled # 6 is a work that expresses concepts relating to the historical roles of women from a feminist perspective. Sherman appropriates herself into B-grade film styled images, giving them new meaning. Through her transformation into traditional feminine archetypes, she is able to express concepts of the woman’s role in society, and the way in which it has evolved.

Marcel Duchamp, whose name is synonymous with the dada movement, approached the concept of transformation, by appropriating everyday objects into new contexts, to give them new meaning. His artwork L.H.O.O.Q is an intence mockery of art, appropriating the piece “The Mona Liza” into a new context in order to challenge the publics way of viewing art. L.H.O.O.Q features a print of the Mona Liza with a moustache and goatee drawn on. Down the botton of the print is the handwritten letters L.H.O.O.Q. The work is crude and blunt. The term L.H.O.O.Q, when spoken aloud in French, translates roughly to ‘she is hot in the genital area.’ The work is a piece typical of the Dadaist movement, in which Duchamp was heavily involved. Dada was a post-war, nihilistic art movement – indeed it was more anti-art than it was in itself art. Dada fought to destroy all existing concepts regarding art. It is not by accident that Duchamp chose to modify a work so incredably famous. His gesture of choosing the Mona Liza was, in itself, a statement on the art world. The Mona Liza had been shown so often, that the piece had lost all meaning; only to be given a new one, through Duchamps recontextualisation. Duchamp was never eager to elabourate on, or even understand, too much the meaning of his works. He considered the view of art an active, not a passive role, in creating to the work as seen in the following quote. “The creative act is not performed by the artist alone; the spectator brings the work in contact with the external world by deciphering and interpreting its inner qualifications and thus adds his contribution to the creative act”