Abstract Thoughts
Some abstract thoughts. Appropriation. This is something I have been thinking about; a tool, in effect, that I have used over the last couple of years, and now, I am no longer appropriating, not to say that I will not decide to do so again; I cannot see into the future regarding borrowing from the past.
In my view, appropriation in art, is taking very directly, then changing or otherwise using, work created by other people or entities.
I have appropriated art work, or combinations of art works, as scaffolding to build on. This scaffolding may exist solely in my thought process, or may be many layers beneath the surface of my abstract digital work; so many layers beneath, that it is not evident at all.
Getting through and past the processes, genres and styles of those who have come before, is crucial. Looking at painting, sculpture and other forms of visual art, as well as looking at books, film, interviews, catalogs of past exhibitions, in order to get to the present of one’s own process, and into the future one wants to be in, is an ongoing adventure.
The future is made up of the past, and one’s own imagination. To get to the future, part of what one needs to do, is work through historical challenges, as I have said above, in a different way.
There are some artists that one discovers along the way, who are impossible to work through, and still be able to come out the other side. I am not sure what to do about that, other than to accept it as a fact, and to face it. These may be artists who one reacts against very strongly, without necessarily knowing why; then at some point later, sometimes many years later, there may come to be an understanding about this. Or not.
It is not helpful to work one’s way partly through to understanding, and assimilating, and then not be able to let go because you just can’t see how to do that. It can be painful. It can be debilitating. It is a real and constant danger that can come and can go.
Right now, I am looking at, and not appropriating from many artists. Had I not had a period of time during which I used appropriation, I don’t know that I would be looking as openly and without discomfort, at art. Discomfort was necessary and appropriation was necessary in order to move along. In the past year or more, I have looked at -- among many others -- Julie Meretu, Alma Thomas, Yun Hyong-Keun, Sam Gilliam, Theaster Gates, Sarah Sze, the Indibili Tribe, David Smith, Mark Rothko, Frank Bowling, Alice Trumbull Mason, Gerhardt Richter.
I said above that I am not appropriating currently, but in a sense, one is always appropriating from some deep place in one’s own history. I have in the past, unsuccessfully appropriated from Hans Hoffman, among many others.
Another aspect of appropriation is collaboration, and I have collaborated, as do all artists by way of borrowing across the arts: through dance, through music, and stitching different art forms and different periods together. Music allows so much, and crossing into that other art as an indirect route to reach a level of understanding that one cannot reach any other way. This is analogous to finding a different route around an impossible and impassable mountain or sea. Just some abstract thoughts, as I said at the outset.
The three images here are in the Talons Series. The images above, within the text, are precursors to The Talons.