- Humour
- Political commentary
- Critique
- Layered understanding/engagement
- Nostalgia
Pop art began to use existing media and the style suddenly became very popular. Andy Warhol based his work solely around using existing media, creating many thought provoking pieces that conveyed a controversial message. For example the electric chair, which was a very controversial subject at the time. Many people say that the way he repeated the image suggests that the subject is loosing its meaning as more and more people are being executed, others say the emptiness of the chair is a sarcastic way of saying it is waiting for its next victim.
Banksy is a modern day example of an artist that uses appropriation in his work. He does this in a different way, instead of taking imagery thats already out there and transforming it he takes political problems in society and transforms them instead twisting them in a visual way. Taking problems in society and politically commenting on them , critiquing them in a humorous but thought provoking style.
This modern day concept has developed into a new breed of appropriation. Memes. A meme is a an image ,video or piece of design , typically humorous in nature, that tackles controversial matters going on in the world. It is something that is copied and spread rapidly by internet users, taking whats already out there and twisting it and putting a new point of view on it.
We were given a task of creating our own visual memes out of popular news stories of the moment. I tried to use the style of Banksys work to influence my memes giving it that graffiti style as if someone is totally disrespecting the subject matter and making a joke of it by drawing all over it. These were the three meme pieces me and a partner created.
 |
The story behind this image is Donald trump wanting to build a wall to separate Mexico from America. We used the idea of painting a fake tunnel onto the wall, to humourise such a controversial political subject from this moment in time. This idea is very often depicted in cartoons, in which characters are trying to trick there arch enemy. Below is an example of this concept.
 |
 |
| This meme had a slightly simple and more light hearted meaning behind it. It is showing someone graffitiing on the Berlin wall. A silly face which is so light hearted drawn on a subject that is very serious, trying to make light of the situation. |
 |
| This next meme was inspired buy the pop art style of appropriation. You can clearly see we were depicting the highly controversial idea that there is a strong correlation between Adolf Hitler and Donald trump. Therefore here we are politically commenting on this subject through visual design. |
