Buy Something: Assignment 2

Here are parts one, two, and three of my Social Commentary/Critique assignment.

The artist Penelope Umbrico uses clippings of very specific parts of the images in magazines and catalogs, such as what can be seen through the cracks of slightly open doors and reflections in mirrors, to make her artwork. Although the clippings that she takes from other sources to use for her work are copyrighted material and do not belong to her, the new insight and ideas that she adds to them allows her to use the copyrighted images through the allowance of Fair Use.

Taking inspiration from Penelope Umbrico’s work, I used pieces of image backgrounds from catalogs to show the advertising themes used to sell different kinds of products. In the first panel, I used the backgrounds of photographs selling clothing and lifestyles in natural settings. The second panel is composed entirely of the rooms in which bed clothing and furniture were presented in their sale pictures. The food in the third panel was used to sell kitchen ware in cooking catalogs. The reoccurring themes of color, texture, and content used to sell the different products become apparent when the clippings are placed together. For example, one might note that bright white is used to sell objects for a bedroom, while red was the dominating trend used to sell items for a kitchen and green for clothing and fashion. Each theme appears to be targeted toward selling its product type with incredible consistency. Through my assignment, I intended to illuminate this phenomenon for the viewer.

The photographs used in commercial catalogs are no doubt professionally photographed and thoroughly copyrighted. To reproduce them unmodified would be a violation of copyright law. However, just as the work of Penelope Umbrico is fair use of copyrighted material because of the perspective that she contributes to the clippings, my social commentary assignment was intended to add new insight and meaning to the catalog pictures and therefore can also be justified as fair use.

The legal term "transformative" is often applied to adaptations that are ruled to be fair use and not in violation of copyright laws. This word implies that copyrighted material must be changed in a fundamental way in order for the appropriation to qualify as fair use. By altering the meaning and purpose of the catalogs’ images from advertisements to commentary, my artwork should be transformative of the original copyrighted material. In addition, it is also important to note that one of the biggest issues in copyright infringement disputes is when money is made or prevented from being made through the unpermitted use of copyrighted material. I am neither making a profit with the clippings nor preventing the companies which made the catalogs from making money by selling their products.