While having been an important, if largely under-theorized, part of artistic practice for centuries, the concept of appropriation in the visual arts is most closely associated with the emergence of postmodernism in the late 1970s. At that time, borrowing images became a primary strategy for artists seeking to explore issues of originality as well as the politics of representation. Part of the charge of those initial appropriative acts came from the implied transgression of “stealing” images from one context and delivering them into another. Now, more than thirty years on, with the notion of originality in art having undergone significant revision, appropriation appears as much a dominant mode of inquiry than a radical act in itself. This course will consider the current “state of appropriation” and some of the related theoretical issues by combining readings on the topic with group critiques in the studio. Artists in all mediums are welcome, but their artistic projects should include an engagement with appropriation on some level.

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