Art Can Has Cheezburger?
For the second Photoshop project, I wanted to create something that would make people laugh and still make them think. I was inspired by the humorous Life Magazine photographs which were on the server. Two images were particularly influential: "Funny 061" and "image 88". The first image is a candid photograph of a boy about to spank a piece of classical statuary. I loved this image because it shows us that what is sometimes canonically perceived as 'art', is not always universally appreciated. The second image is a beautiful photo of a jack hammer with its owner's gloves still gripping tightly even though the human being is absent. This photo has a great amount of meaning and depth, even though it is still funny. I wanted to explore these themes in my second project, and try to combine humor and meaning.
Other images in the series of photos from Life Magazine used juxtaposition as a comedic goldmine. Reference "image" 39, 40, 41 and 56 on the server to see what I mean.
I decided to use juxtaposition in my images to make them funny. I perused the standard canon of 'classic art' - art that has been exalted to the extent that it might no longer be considered 'art' but instead an element of popular culture. Then I took a byproduct of contemporary pop culture - namely the "LOLcat" (if you aren't familiar with the lolcat, basically it consists of any humorous cat photograph with a grammatically erroneous subtitle) - and superimposed the image of the goofy cat head with the 'canonical' art images.
Here is the original "LOLcat"
http://www.textually.org/picturephoning/archives/archives/images/set2/i-can-has-cheezburger.jpg
And here is a gallery featuring some of the images I created.
http://opallynn.deviantart.com/gallery/#Art-Can-Has-Cheezburger-
The question I want to pose the viewer is this; does my adaptation of the canonized idealized artwork degrade the work, enhance it or have nothing to do with it at all? Does the addition of lowbrow humor make these images less respectable? Does the original art loose its meaning or can both the humor and the beauty of the art exist side by side?