Research Task: Appropriation and Pastiche
- Abbie Vidler
- Apr 22
- 6 min read
For this little research task, I have to look at several artists and make notes on them and their creative approaches.
Harmonica Rosales
Rosales loved traditional classical paintings and always felt inspired by them; however, she and her daughter felt a lack of representation in art which in turn, inspired her to create her beautiful paintings. Throughout her journey she has encountered a lot of hardships and criticisms from very narrow-minded people (to put it lightly), they were incredible rude and racist with what they had to say which had taken a toll on Rosales but it never deterred her. Her beautiful artwork is creating representation for the wonderful communities that share similar cultures to one another.
Inspired by Renaissance paintings that immortalizes humanity, religion, culture and beauty. Rosales showcases black femineity through her breath-taking paintings of all "black women and all women from the African diaspora" 1. For Rosales, art is a part of her and when it comes to researching for her art pieces she focuses on looking at "racism, colourism and shadism"; and will incorporate beautiful fabrics with African symbolisms, to honor her ancestors and family. 2
Kehinde Wiley
Kehinde Wiley creates focus in his work showing black men and women seen through Wiley's eyes. With incredible detail in the background, the clothes, the hair, the skin-- absolutely rich in colour. One important response I read about was Wiley's goal when it came to his creative approach, specifically when it comes to his 'Colourful Realm' collection, where painted flowers and black men coincide with each other in a raw beautiful way-- those paintings sees the relationship between men and masculinity, what true masculinity means to the modern time. 3
Wiley creates impactful colours with inspiration from "Japanese Edo painting" with traditional western painting style, and uses family, friends and models for his painting; making the paintings all that more raw 4. His artwork with beautiful decorative art is considered very feminine in some eyes and so his work challenges that thought process by collaborating it with black men. His work has travelled across the world as a projection of what masculinity is for the 21st Century man, and because of that inspires young people around the world. 5
Kara Walker
Kara Walker is very well-known for her powerful silhouette narrative that peeks into the mind that is Kara Walker. In most of her art pieces, she dedicates an entire room to her cut-out illustrations that project/stuck onto the walls; and alludes to the stories if her own through these images. It's almost as if someone wrote a book, and published it without a name, bio or blurb to indicate what that piece of art is about.
Not only through her silhouette imagery but her watercolour illustrations and drawings, they all tell a story of experiences she had with consuming white media, feeling unrepresented and isolated by the media-- however invested in the story. There is a lot of deep thought that goes into her thought-provoking work. 6
Her large-scale collaged silhouettes invites the viewer to be a part in the artwork, where they discover the narrative and the lens of "history, fiction" that would make people uncomfortable or engage with the beautiful and expansive piece of work. 7
Ellen Gallagher
Gallagher creates by painting, drawing, sculpture and animation-- a variety of ways to delicately combines together to create intricate, detailed work, and conveys the racism that goes on throughout life and through media; using imagery such as this as stepping stones to produce her work. A particular collection produced by her was called "Afrofuturist Myth of Drexciya" which was said as "a Black Atlantis" sits on the sea bed of the Atlantic Ocean, where "children of the mothers of enslaved African women" would go if thrown off or threw themselves off after being enslaved and forced to travel. This collection was the early part of her career but was a huge moment for Gallagher. 8
Her artwork has some incredible textures and shows the contemporary style very well, after her successes, she also went into what sparks her in life-- what food was native to Africa and used her diaspora experience, living in Amsterdam to contrast and relate to her and her ancestors relations to Africa 9. Her large pieces are dedicated to work that has already existed and reflects identity and the stripping of identity in media, transitioning to how much identity we see everyday. Her work involves multiple process that is unique to every piece, there's a lot of layering stripping of paper, inking, embezzlement-- paper manipulation and flow of mediums. 10
Wangechi Mutu
Mutu loves nature and wanted top incorporate that love into her work, using her Kenya upbringing of childhood fun in the garden as a propeller into her art career; creating the freedom of nature and the fragility of it. She mentions that she is constantly multi-tasking because of each step of a process of one project to another allows her to work in the dynamic time-frame, because of this she expresses that the drying process of her works, whether sculptural or wet mediums, the drying is just as important. It creates suspense and surprise with the unexpected-ness of it.
With her upbringing of going to an all-girls school, she wants to use that inspiration to create the beauty of womanhood and the sacrality of women, creating something feminine in each of her works. Working in collage for her first stages of her art career, she developed into wet mediums like watercolour- which then turned into photography, all while combining and blending them together for each new art piece. Then came sculpture which solidified her art toolset, she is able to create large sculptures that blend nature and femineity with beauty. 11
Reflection
This research task allowed me to really broaden my horizons on the many more artists that are out there and there stories, how each artist considered there history/ancestry, their reflections on the media and message to the world. I have loved every artist that I have researched, I partially liked Wangechi Mutu, her artworks are incredible, there is so much calmness and air about her work that really sediments how she adapts her process to each project. Like in her video that I watched, she said that she didn't like the soil in America (where she studied) since she didn't know what was in the soil, and so used the soil in Kenya since it was all-natural and holds a lot of sentimental value to her-- combining that into her work elevates the feelings of childhood and being a child in Kenya.
I was also extremely impressed with Kehinde Wiley's work, its incredible vibrant in colour and beautiful with the delicate flowers and I really liked his message of male masculinity-- since it's quite the hot topic these days with the TV show Adolescence. Highlight the dangers of "Alpha Male" energy, poorly influencing young boys to act in poor and inappropriate ways.
Harmonica Rosales has extremely beautiful work, reading up on her work and hearing about all the nasty comments was really upsetting to hear-- she wanted to represent the unrepresented and in a way that honored her inspirations while inspiring others. Only for it to be misread by certain individuals.
This research task has made me reflect on how I think more deeply about my art and what influences I could/should use from my own culture/upbringing, and what messages I want to say with my work.
1 A Kusch, Mayday Magazine 'Painting to Empower: An Interview with Artist Harmonica Rosales by Aya Kusch', Feb 22, 2021. https://maydaymagazine.com/painting-to-empower-an-interview-with-artist-harmonia-rosales-by-aya-kusch/ Accessed Apr 22, 2025.
2 J Hernandez, The Latinx Project 'Reclaiming Our Identity: Q&A with Afro-Cuban Artist Harmonia Rosales', Jul 2, 2020. https://www.latinxproject.nyu.edu/intervenxions/reclaiming-our-identity-qampa-with-afro-cuban-artist-harmonia-rosales Accessed Apr 22, 2025.
3 S Heath, JUXTAPOZ Magazine 'Kehinde Wiley - The Making of Magic', 2022. https://www.juxtapoz.com/news/magazine/features/fall-2022-cover-story-an-interview-with-kehinde-wiley/ Accessed Apr 22, 2025.
4 A Akinkugbe, AnotherMag 'Kehinde Wiley: “My Figures Demand to Be Taken Seriously”', Jan 26, 2023. https://www.anothermag.com/art-photography/14641/kehinde-wiley-interview-colourful-realm-roberts-projects-exhibition Accessed Apr 22, 2025.
5 N Kurchanova, studio international 'Kehinde Wiley: ‘I think ideas are just as important as the material practice of painting’', U/A. https://www.studiointernational.com/kehinde-wiley-interview-a-new-republic-brooklyn-museum-african-american Accessed Apr 22, 2025.
6 Art21, YouTube 'Exploring Kara Walker’s Radical Use of Silhouettes | Art21', Oct 8, 2024. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrKIGL5ZWNk Accessed Apr 22, 2025.
7 Artnet, Artnet 'Kara Walker | Artnet', U/A. https://www.artnet.com/artists/kara-walker/ Accessed Apr 22, 2025.
8 B Luke, J Michalska, D Clark, A Dawson; The Art Newspaper, 30 Jun, 2021. https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2021/06/30/a-brush-with-ellen-gallagher Accessed Apr 22, 2025.
9 E Bonhomme, FRIEZE 'Drawing Kinship with Ellen Gallagher's Protean Practice' Jan 11, 2024. https://www.frieze.com/article/ellen-gallagher-profile-edna-bonhomme-240 Accessed Apr 22, 2025.
10 Art21, YouTube 'Ellen Gallagher in "Play" -Season 3 | "Art in the Twenty-First Century"', Jun25, 2024. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNXgcs2rLlo Accessed Apr 22, 2025.
11 U/A, art21 'Between the Earth and the Sky | Wangechi Mutu', July 21, 2021. https://art21.org/watch/extended-play/wangechi-mutu-between-the-earth-and-the-sky-short/ Accessed Apr 22, 2025.
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