SOUL MAKING, APPROPRIATION AND IMPROVISATION

Prepared by: Canedo, Laurente, Pia, Espancho

Intended Learning Outcomes:

At the end of the discussion, you should be able to:

1. explain how meanings can be derived from art;

2. discuss how improvisation can make an artwork distinctive and
3. identify the issues and problems that can arise because of appropriation of art.

What is soul- making?

Soul-making cannot be defined. The Greek philosopher Heraclitus said, "You could not
discover the limits of soul, even if you traveled by every path in order to do so; such is the
depth of its meaning."

 SOUL-MAKING IS A METAPHOR
-The term soul-making is a metaphor. The word 'metaphor' is comprised of two
Greek words - Meta - above and Phero - to carry. So a metaphor is an image or phrase
that carries the reader above the literal sensory realm into the realm of invisible
imagination.
 SOUL MAKING IS POETRY MAKING
-The word 'making' in 'soul-making' comes out of the Greek word poieo which
means 'to be the author or maker of something'. Our English words poet, poem and
poetry come from this word. The reason for that term, for example rather than soul-
builder or soul-grower, is that the emphasis is on creative, intelligent authorship. The
making is not done by impersonal processes, but by Intelligent Forces. So then, soul-
making is really psycho-poeisis or soul poetry.
 SOUL-MAKING IN OUR DREAMS
-These archetypal nouns and verbs come to us most easily and creatively in our
dreams, when our conscious guards are down. It is in the night, while we sleep, that the
Poem is most easily written. Contrary to much current teaching on dream theory, we
don't need to know anything about these dreams.

APPROPRIATION
Appropriation refers to the act of borrowing or reusing existing elements within a new
work. Post-modern appropriation artists, including Barbara Kruger, are keen to deny the notion
of ‘originality’.
They believe that in borrowing existing imagery or elements of imagery, they are re-
contextualising or appropriating the original imagery, allowing the viewer to renegotiate the
meaning of the original in a different, more relevant, or more current context.

 Les Demoiselles d'Alabama & Les Demoiselles d'Avignon

A painting which borrows its narrative and composition from the infamous Les
Demoiselles d’Avignon by Picasso. Here Colesscott has developed Picasso’s abstraction
 and ‘Africanism’ in line with European influences. Colescott has made this famous image
his own, in terms of colour and content, whilst still making his inspiration clear.
 Sherrie Levine, After Walker Evans & Walker Evans, Alabama Tenant
Farmer's Wife

By bringing this work back into the conscious of the art world, she was advancing
the art form that is photography by using it to increase our awareness of already
existing imagery. On a basic level, we tend to equate originality with aesthetic newness.
 Jim Krantz & Richard Prince

Here Prince has re-photographed and re-proportioned an image from an

advertisement for Marlboro cigarettes. Much like the work of Sherrie Levine, there is
very little that the artist Richard Prince has done to alter the original work.
 W Magazine, Art Issue, 11-2010

The idea of using appropriation to address the consumption of imagery is

something that was addressed in the pivotal 1977 exhibition Pictures. In the exhibition
catalogue, curator Douglas Crimp noted to growing extent to which our day-to-day
experience is governed by images from the media.