At A Crossroads: Transition to Avant Pop through Remix Appropriation
Avant-garde art existed for many years and morphed through numerous phases, the top four being Dadaism, Abstract Expressionism, Minimalism, and Pop art. The most recent, “last” stage, Pop art, started to dominate the avant-garde art world and has transformed into what is now known as Avant Pop.
An artwork can be defined as avant-garde if it redefines artistic practice, utilizes new artistic tools and techniques, or if it reinterprets the meaning of the nature of art objects. Avant-garde pieces incorporate political and/or social values that are crucial and relevant in the society. Also, it usually is produced, presented, or distributed in a new way like what early net artists did, such as Vuk Ćosić.
Pop Art is known for the use of ordinary items such as soup cans, road signs, and comic strips for displaying iconography from contemporary popular culture. This art was iconoclastic which means it rejected the supreme “high” art and also contemporary avant-garde. The media then exploited these easily recognizable images to the point where it became apart of culture. This era was greatly influenced by the Dada, which is known for using “ready-made” pieces like Duchamp’s “Fountain.” Interestingly enough, these pop artists became widely popular due to the media which allowed the “avant” to start disappearing. The art became so immersed in popular culture that the avant influence became ambiguous.
While postmodernism and avant-garde can be hard to distinguish, Po-Mo art destroys past conceptions of art and replaces them. Avant-garde also push past old conceptions, but with social issues in mind. In addition, Po-Mo artists use their art with the intent to shock while avant-garde artists, while they also shock the viewer, use their art to communicate a message. This initial interest in social issues led avant-garde to become Avant Pop. Whether or not avant-garde has completely died, or simply the AVANT, is what this exhibition is all about.
An Avant Pop artist can be defined in many ways, but what brings them all together are these three things: technology, culture, and ideas rooted in the avant-garde movement. Culture and technology influence the voice or voices of the piece which are mashed-up to create the “new” voice that speaks through the artwork. The voices appropriated can be referenced as remix. Each voice is a basic element of art whether it be a musical note, a video game, or a piece of an image. While viewing our online exhibition you will
In “The Avant-Pop Phenomenon,” Larry McCaffery states
"This blurring of the distinctions between 'high' and 'pop' art becomes a central, defining feature...Today such distinctions are, if anything, even more difficult to maintain...Should rock videos by Madonna, Peter Gabriel, or Laurie Anderson be considered mainstream because they are enormously popular--even though they employ visual and poetic techniques? Is William Gibson's 'cyberpunk' novel, Neuromancer, 'avant-garde' since it employs unusual formal techniques (the use of collage, cut-ups, appropriation of other texts, etc.)? Or does its publication by the genre science-fiction industry establish it as pop? “
These five artists justify that the Avant Pop era is fully underway. Each artist has created a piece that is immersed with pop culture. They use pop cultures voice by splicing small aspects of social media to create a “new” voice in a way that enhances the art piece.
The first artist I would like to talk about is Amy Alexander. Her piece, SVEN took surveillance recordings and based on the content, the software would match up a similar music video and mash the two together. Alexander was interested in how the information is analyzed by the computer, but in a way that the creator of the software intended it to. This piece was important to include in our online exhibition because it was only displayed as an installation at a museum in New York. As a society that is so dependent on a collaborative effort it is important to make every relevant piece available to all. When an art piece is with in a museum, only a small, insignificant amount of people will experience the piece hindering the ability for people to advance as a body.
Next, the artist Girl Talk is a heavily influenced pop culture musician who compiles hundreds of samples into each alum he creates. His level of skill and technique is beyond much of other artists with similar concepts using previously recorded songs by other artists to splice and create a new idea, or what I like to call voice. People are starting to move past the initial shock that none of his music is “original” and they are seeing that this is the next stage in music culture as well as art culture. People have been appropriating for decades, but with new technology it is becoming easier and easier to “cut and paste” to create a new piece. Girl Talk’s captivating album “Feed the Animals” is quickly evolving to something more then pop, the Avant Pop, which we will continue to see with his new album, “All Day.”
Another Avant Pop artist, Mr. Brainwash created a piece called “Kiss the Beatles.” In this piece he appropriates two influential bands: the Beatles and Kiss. MBW has and will get many criticisms for this piece from angry musicians who hate the idea of putting the two bands side by side, but MBW was not the first to do this. In fact a piece quite similar to this, called “Kiss the Beatles,” was created already by Print Mafia. While many will call Mr. Brainwash unoriginal, he is simply remixing Print Mafia’s piece to make it his own. But how much does it take to be considered a new piece? MBW is known for his ability to create and sell hundreds of pieces quicker than lightning. He actually flaunts how easily art can be made in today's technology-crazed culture. As much as I am infuriated with MBW, I simply think he understands the inner-workings of our society and is using it to very clearly show the rest of us what will happen to the art world if the avant ever does fully die. When art becomes about mass production and cultural icons mashed up with each other into what Mark Amerika might call a “virtual ghetto.”
Cory Arcangel was chosen for this exhibit for his remix of the video game, Hogan’s Alley. His piece, “I Shot Andy Warhol,” incorporated pop culture icons to make a statement about the status of pop art in the respect of the avant-garde. Although this piece references the film “I Shot Andy Warhol” I believe that by choosing Warhol to be shot he questions the status of pop art in the digitized social world we live in today.
The final artist Paul D Miller aka DJ Spooky made a re-score of the avant-garde film, “Blood of a Poet” by Jean Cocteau. His re-score was performed with live musicians, a live dancer, and also a live narrator. DJ Spooky took a film and broadened it into an entire performance. He has taken an avant piece and by re-scoring it, he has created a avant pop version of the film. The avant side is clear because of the manner that it was performed with many different aspects of performance. On the other hand the pop side of the piece lies in the iconic subject matter, Jean Cocteau. Jean Cocteau would probably not be classified as main stream or popular in today’s society, but since Spooky chose to use his film it makes Cocteau relevant again.
A quote from Mark Amerika’s, “Leaving the Virtual Ghetto” says
“This is what Burroughs meant when he said LANGUAGE IS A VIRUS. And, as a result, Readers will start becoming Scanners...Avant-Pop artists, who are just now traversing the borders of The Beyond and entering the dangerous lands of Genderlessness and Degenerative Narrative, are the ones who are presently trying their best to create the necessary angels on whose wings we can find our way OUT of this virtual ghetto.”
Can we escape from avant pop? No, it’s apart of who were are. Technology. Innovation. Culture. There’s just one missing link that we lead us away from this confused daze were in, imagination. These five artists are pushing the boundaries using the voices of society to create works that our disfunctional, media addicted minds just can’t get enough of.
Further Reading
Lankshear, Colin and Knobel, Michele. "Digital Remix: The Art and Craft of Endless Hybridization".
Lessig, Lawrence. "The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World".
McCaffery, Larry. "The Avant-Pop Phenomenon".
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