Originality..

I really like this quote from the 'Ways of Seeing' tv series, "..everything around the image is part of its memory. its uniqueness is part of the uniqueness of the single place where it is. everything around it confirms and consolidates its meaning. It marks the place of meaning. But now it has no place. You can see it anywhere. Through photography the meaning of a painting becomes transmittable." The way he explains it is so easy to understand.

Anyways heres the business..

The meaning of an artwork does not die or carry over when it is reproduced, it is altered or distorted.  For example, in Heather Straka's work 'The Asian', the originality of her painting has become hazy. 

In commissioning 59 Chinese artisans (from the Dafen Oil Painting Village in the Longgang District of Shenzen) to copy or reproduce her own painting and then placing them all together on one wall, Straka has attacked the idea of originality. We are left to find her original painting which in no way stands out from the beautiful reproductions which causes us to really admire the different styles. The irony of it is that she herself copied an old Shanghai poster in the first place, although she made it original and identifiable by adding a tiki. I reckon a painting is original even when it has been reproduced because the thing that makes it original is the idea. When someone reproduces an image, they add their own 'twist' to it. It can be obvious or completely subtle, even the artist may not realize it. This twist adds a new aspect to the original idea and in a way creates a new one, different to the first. I mean two works from completely different places maybe almost identical, except they may still be considered original because the ideas and thought process behind the two were completely different.   In saying that, no two works are the same. Even a photocopy of a photo is different. I reckon copying can be unintentional. We all draw on experience to relate to something. We all draw on inspiration in others works to create our own work. We create a new meaning however similar it may be to the original.