Connectivity Lecture

Bricolage and its use in contemporary culture.

Bricolage comes from the French term bricolage which originally means to fiddle or tinker, or to make creative use of whatever materials are at hand. Assemblage and collage are other ways of describing what bricolage is. An article written for The New York Times about Robert Rauschenberg said that:
"art can be made out of anything, exist anywhere, last forever or just for a moment and serve almost any purpose or no purpose at all except to suggest that the stuff of life and the stuff of art are ultimately one and the same."

This is an example of the contemporary bricolage works of Rauschenberg. You can see here that he has taken two "found" objects to create a piece of art. The works have been installed in a museum, which makes the viewer concentrate on the piece itself, not what's surrounding it, as that would change the meaning.

Marcel Duchamp is another artist who worked with "found objects" which he called Readymades. An example of Duchamps' work would be Fountain. An image of a urinal with the word "R.Mutt" written on it.

The original "Fountain" has been lost so many replicas have been comissioned by Duchamp and are now on display in many different museums. Following this, a variety of people have urinated or attacked the piece, as part of performance art. Yuan Chai commented "The urinal is there - it's an invitation. As Duchamp said himself, it's the artist's choice. He chooses what is art. We just added to it."

Another example of an artist who uses Bricolage would be Tracey Emin.

Notions of Originality

The idea of something being original is the aspect of something being new. It has not been reproduced or forged. Past artwork has a big impact on contemporary pieces, many pieces being recontextualised and turned into something new, making it unoriginal. This can also be called paying homage to a particular artist or piece of art.

By being inspired by someone elses work we can move forward to create our own ideas or interpretations. Our level of experimentation goes further which enables us to understand certain aspects of visual communication. This is where critical commentary comes in. In studying, understanding and discussing past pieces of work, we can come up with our own outcomes and interpretations. Even by giving a piece a different name we can change the meaning, thus making people see it in a new perspective. Although using an existing idea, by adding your own imaginative slant you are giving a sense of originality to the piece. A good example of that would be Andy Warhol's Marilyn - 1962 compared to Matteo Bertolio from Tank Magazine - 2004.

It is clear to see just by glancing at the two pieces that Matteo has taken inpiration from Warhols' work yet added his own, modern twist on it by using a contemporary model. By still using the bold colours that reflect the pop art of Andy Warhol, it makes it recognisable to a wide audience. Also the image of John. F. Kennedy reflect the pop culture from that time.