Authenticity - The Start of Something New

A fundamental notion of postmodern art is the “idea [that] something completely new is a fallacy (Sturken & Cartwright, 261). The book further questions if it is “possible to make something new in a context of constant remakes, parodies, and references,” alluding to the use of celebrities and other cultural contexts in advertisements, TV shows, movies, and more.

So then we must ask ourselves, is it possible to make something new out of something that already exists? If I use artwork created by another person in a piece of my own, like Sherrie Levine, is mine truly a “work of art” or just a worthless replication of the original? Postmodernism is “not concerned with representing reality but with rethinking the function of art and emphasizing the role of institutional context in producing meaning” (263). In other words, according to postmodernist thought, we should not be concerned with the actual work but the meaning being produced by it.

But what if there was no meaning behind the work? What if I collaged a series of images taken by a photographer (not me) and called it my own? I only chose these pictures for their aesthetic value. Sure, I could make up “meaning” for my collage, but could we really consider this to be a newly created piece? I really have no idea how to answer this…I’m actually asking…