Notes On Appropriation

The act of appropriation in visual arts is to reuse existing imagery or objects to appropriate it in one’s own work. This imagery could originate from art, daily life, the press, the artist’s own previous work, etc, .. Appropriation often questions artistic value, authorship, originality versus multiplicity and copyright. Appropriation is a widely researched and practiced topic in visuals arts, especially in the 20^th century.

Notes On Appropriation, shortened as N.O.A., is a collection of different pieces all questioning the topic of appropriation and its subthemes. The collection is ambiguous and shifts between fine arts, appropriation and graphic design. Some pieces are shifting more towards conceptual or fine arts while others tend to be considered more as graphic design or applied arts. This ambiguity does not only occur in the concepts and references of the pieces but occurs as well in the materiality, the way of displaying the pieces, and the chosen mediums and processes. This raises questions like: is there a difference between fine arts and graphic design or appropriation? If so, what is it?

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