Visual Response- Week 1, What is Photography?
Halley Docherty- “Classic paintings of the world cities meet Google street view- in pictures”
After looking at “No Mans Land, 2012” by Mishka Henner it sparked the conversation of found objects and turning them into art. Which is what the dada art movement was all about. Dadaists made a mockery of materialistic items and nationalists attitudes. Which is what Marcel Duchamp did with his artwork titled “The Fountain” (which is a urinal). Sticking with the idea of using someone elses images or art and claiming it as you own.
The next artist Halley Docherty has done just that by combining classic paintings of the world cities with Google street view images. I do quite like the idea behind her work by matching up an old painting with the current day state of it. I feel that it shows change and growth in the cities she shows, but none of the work is hers. The only thing she has to do is find the right image and painting, put one on top of the other and there you have it. I feel artists and critics get really worked up over series like these because its so simple, with little to no effort. It’s a slap in the face to anyone who studies art because anyone can go on google, gather up 6-10 images that share a common theme, claim it as their own and say they’re an artist, it appears to be that simple these days.
