Appropriation: Neither Black or White

This blog is in response to articles of the Cariou vs. Prince copyright infringement court case. Links and articles can be found here.

Appropriation means taking the work of another artist without their permission and using it as their own artwork. This meaning seems to be closely tied with plagiarizing. However, there is a difference between stealing ones work and slapping their own name on it versus seeing someone's work and using it to influence their own original ideas. But for now, we will focus on appropriation and the idea of using someone else's artwork without prior permission.

First of all, I will take a stance on the issue. I agree that Prince's work was an "appropriate" appropriated art piece. The last question in the NY Times article was thought-provoking. How can we determine if something is transformative enough? It may depend on who is looking at the art, but I personally believe that Prince's work transformed the message that Cariou was saying to make it his own. Cariou's Yes, Rasta was made to capture the life and feelings of Rastafarians while Prince's Canal Zone kept a more dystopian feel with "crude imagery" and completely different message.

However, appropriation is neither black or white but gray. How can a single person determine if a work is appropriated enough to be called an original piece of art? The court defined appropriation as being transformative enough and having a new expression and different character from the original. I agree greatly with this statement because I believe that's the way it needs to be.

Appropriated work is controversial as is, and even I cannot give an exact definition to what "appropriate" appropriated work looks like. It just depends on who is looking at it and how the work is generally perceived. So finally, I do not believe that Richard Prince's work is right or wrong, but it does tackle controversy in a new way and take on a new expression of character. Although Prince's work can be controversial, and he will probably do this type of work again, his method of creating a new expression from another person's work is definitely an interesting one.