Peter Kennard

Peter Kennard's work reflects his involvement in the anti-Vietnam war movement. his photo montages are "full of histories irony, fury and anger at the mistakes made in its name"The base of his work is rendering iconic and easily accessible images unacceptable, using controversial images placement.
"there is a natural alliance between truth and affliction" - Simon weil.

Robert Rauschenberg

Robert rauschenberg served in the military in the 1940's which was an obvious inspiration for his political and cultural art. He uses images of current and symbolic events out of magazines and the media in his collages, expanding them with 3d objects, also using techniques such as painting with ink dipped tyres. Rauschenberg used a large press still of JFK from a televised news conference, juxtaposing it next to an image of an astronaut which gives the piece a time frame and allows the viewer to read a story.

James rosenquist

James rosenquist is an American artist who combines both pop art and fine art. He creates his work using techniques such as silkscreen printing and collage. His collages are composed in a way that the individual objects make sense together and tell a story. His print 'president elect' uses the image of Kennedy's face from his campaign poster, which is another example of appropriation. Rosenquist said he was interested in people who advertise themselves.

Andy warhol

Warhol's silkscreen Monroe prints are another example of appropriation. The original image is a publicity shot from the 1953 film Nigeria.


These prints undermined the authenticity of the original portrait and allows the image to be reproducible. Warhol had an obsession with morbid concepts and cult celebrities. I am interested in exploring the fate of these cult celebrities if they had the chance to burn out like the celebrities with no controversial story.

Appropriating images

Appropriating: To take something for ones own use, usually without permission from the owner.

This is a famous example of an image being appropriated by an artist. Shepard Fairey has taken this iconic photograph of Barak Obama and used graphic design to make it his own. Photographer, Mannic Garcia, has called Fairey on his blatent appropriation, to which someone replied:
"To photograph is to appropriate the thing photographed"
I would like to use appropriation throughout my entire project as i think it would be a challenge to alter the images enough to make them my own without making the image unrecognisable.

ideas

Taking well known images and recreating them with a modern twist
-Michael Caine portrait by David Bailey with the cigarette replaced with a Nicorette inhalator.

Product placement is a form of marketing that advertisement company's use to subliminal advertise their product.
It is used in films to allow the viewer to relate to the character/story line they are seeing. The viewer is subjected to cleverly hidden advertising.
I would like to experiment with product placement within the brands primary advertising.
e.g. - Including a child in a Calvin Klein advert to portray the use of child labor within the company.


This image of Michael Caine was taken in 1965. I have used this as an example of using editing software to replace a cigarette with a Nicorette inhalator. This also shows the use of product placement.

The other subjects i could include using this method is
-controversy within the brands or products
-slave labor
-added ingredients
-animal cruelty and testing

Other controversial issues i could cover
-recreating portraits of celebrities and adding my opinion of their death
Michael Jackson
Marilyn Monroe
John Lennon
JFK

Purpose

The purpose for my art is to look at well known events and cult celebrities and put a controversial twist on them. I have researched many artists that have done a similar thing but did not come across any pieces of art that convey the same messages or cover same subjects. The use of existing images throughout my pieces allows the audience to understand and recognise the event but are also rendered in a way that the original images were not intended for. I have tried to tell a story with both of my pieces and i feel as if this will allow the audience to look at the images on another level. I would display my work in a gallery that contained other pieces of controversial and political art. The JFK print could also be used to educate young people about the death of the president, as the topic is very important in American education. My Abbey Road piece would be part of a memorabilia collection or used to educate people on the topic of his death.