What is an Image (CR)

What is an image? 

You know that excited feeling when you notice a typo in a book? That's an image. When you notice something weird in a photograph or drawing, and then you can't unsee it? That's an image. When your cookie breaks halfway between the bag and your mouth? That's an image. When you write down a word you're saying, rather than the one you intended to write down? That's an image. When you say a word too many times that it stops making sense? That's an image.

There is one fine moment right before ever realization. The thought is in limbo, between your eyes and the space, between your brain and your skull. An image lies there (in my humble opinion). Anything is am image, everything is an image, nothing is an image. You can't hold on to that moment, you can't even recognize that moment. But now that I you can't do it, I bet everyone will try anyway.

What is an Image (LW)

image: nom féminin
[...]
Sens 2: Ce que renvoie le miroir.
Ex:  "Elle n'aimait  pas du tout l'image que lui renvoie le miroir. "

What is an Image (ES)

WHAT IS 

AN IMAGE?

“WHAT IS AN IMAGE?” 

–AN INTRODUCTION TO THE LIMITS OF INQUIRY AND DEFINITION

Even the most basic attempt to answer such an inquiry regarding the definition of an image can quickly lead down a rabbit hole of philosophical questions. This is the very nature of posing such a simple question regarding such a general topic. It has emerged as the passion of intellects to challenge everyday notions with relentless questioning, just like their almighty Greek fathers.

Ask me what an image is, and I must ask what a dictionary is? Are the days of relying on Merriam-Webster and Oxford so far behind us that we must indulge in such intellectual duels and petty crusades for self-affirmation? I would expect one who raises such a question to be among those who question their very existences. Perhaps one can no longer rely on such obvious sources of information, because such sources of information may no longer be so obvious.

For this we can thank the internet, and search engines, and open source encyclopedias, and mobile applications, and our friends with Ph.Ds, and our friends without high school diplomas, and our older siblings, and our best friends’ favorite blogs, and Post- Modernism, and the Enlightenment, and the quest for enlightenment, and the quest for a lighter for our friends with freshly packed bowls, and the insatiable appetites for insatiability, and the search for some new light on the old light because the Divine Light is for the Far Right (and we all have the right to ask questions), and the “right” to know the the truth. The problem is that one might not even know what it means to know anything anymore, let alone know what the “truth” is, even if the truth about truth and knowledge came neatly packaged by a reliable source within the pages of a dictionary with a bow on top.

How is that for an image? How is that for an answer? What would a satisfying answer to “what is an image?” even look like? Does anyone even know? Does anyone even know what it means to be satisfied?

I know that I don’t.

I know that if anyone walked up to me right now and asked any one of the questions just raised that I would not have an answer. I know this because the only thing that I do know, is that I do not know everything.Since that is the only thing I know for sure, there is a good chance that I don’t know anything else at all. In fact, there is even a good chance that I don’t even know that I don’t know everything, because I doubt that knowing what it means to know is among the few or many things that I may or may not know –and of course all of this presupposes that knowledge even exists. I think.

I am not sure.

When I close my eyes.

I would imagine that there was a time and place when a certain caveperson roamed around hiding from dinosaurs or volcanoes or giant carnivorous chickens or evil serpents or divine wrath and he/she too might close his/her eyes and imagine that there was a time and place when pre-cavepersons didn’t have to hide their pre-cavechildren during giant-chicken mating season.

I would imagine that there was a time at which a certain caveperson x might have turned to a certain caveperson y and realized that y might find x’s imaginary haven pleasurable, and y could really benefit from some pleasure since he/she just lost his/her legs in the volcano last Tuesday. For the sake of simplicity, I would imagine that the wildly offensive grunts that modern pop culture uses to describe Cavespeak are inaccurate, and in this scenario Cavespeak does not exist yet. So x takes a stick and makes some marks on the dirt to his/her left that kind of resemble chickens in a sort of pre-historic coop, and to his/her right a bunch of marks are made that sort look like cavechildren playing in the hot springs while x and y are fooling around in a fancy cave. Then things get a little awkward because y thought that he/she and x were just friends, because it’s pretty obvious that y has been into caveperson z since that one botany class at Hunter-Gatherer State.

When I open my eyes.

I vaguely remember some stuff from a psychology class about short-term and long-term memory, and some process where short-term stuff makes it into the long-term stuff. I bring this up, because my eyes are open and for as long as my short-term memory allows, I will have a vivid image of dirty cavepeople with long hair, dirty finger nails, and severe burns where legs once were. This image is as real to me as the assembled marks in the dirt that I envision as the first incarnation of the “image” as we have come to accept today. Although, that too is the product of my imagination.

Gone are the days when an image was simply smeared pigment in a cave or marked up dirt, for with the rise of civilization and the development of culture so too has the monetary value of the “image” soared. Perhaps this is why the question in question is worth asking and answering.

But alas...

I have exhausted my intellect and reached the introductory limits of inquiry and definition. 

                                                                                                                                                      [END]

The short answer is:

The shorter answer is:

What is an Image (JW)

What is an image?

After sitting with this question for a couple of weeks I’ve come to think that an image of something that is not necessarily concrete.  Meaning it doesn’t really exists for all to see, of course it could be a picture on a wall, a book, a screen anything that can be seen with the eye.  But I think of an image as something that lives in the mind, a memory, an idea, a misinterpretation. It can be shaped by mood, feeling, experience, time, light, perhaps the list of variables is endless.  I often wonder, if two people look at the same thing do they see the same thing?  And I would say, no, they never do.  When two people look at the same painting they will invariably see the same thing through different lenses, tinted by the unique chemistry that constitutes that person.  An image is seen and enters into an ephemeral, ever-evolving place of memory and experience.  Conjuring an emotional response or evoking a physical reaction, an image is not just visual and can trigger sensation and engage all the senses.  So I would argue that in fact an image could exist for someone who has never been able to see anything. 

Texture is the dominant characteristic of card VI, which often elicits association related to interpersonal closeness; it is specifically a "sex card", its likely sexual percepts being reported more frequently than in any other card, even though other cards have a greater variety of commonly seen sexual contents.

Beck:	bat, butterfly, moth
Piotrowski:	bat (53%), butterfly (29%)
Dana (France):	butterfly (39%)

What is an Image (DP)

LAST COMMENT


Prompt 1 An image that attracts you
I began to see the art from the western contemporary artists, my upcoming fellows. It was really different from the impression I got from those classic oil paintings and sculptures seated in Met and Louvre.

Prompt 2 What happens?

Prompt 3 There is nothing to see, so we look

I began to think if we got blind, what would happen. There is a boy in Columbia, he is blind, but he came to the campus everyday by himself without any help. I was so curious about his world. The specialty of him really inspired me.

Prompt 4 Change the world

It was Peter Fend, who made me really confused and struggled. I began asking, it’s art???!!!! Actually, I still doubt till now.

Prompt 5 Politics

I began to think about the relation between the image and language.

Prompt 6 Internal & External world

Actually, image is one of the things connecting our internal world and external world.

Prompt 7 Manifesto, My psychic atlas

I began to think about why I make images, or arts, to satisfy myself or to please others? Part of me want to be approved by my fellows, by the viewers, by the public, while part of me don’t want to cater to the people around, I want to keep my own identity. On one hand, I believe that a lot of artists can dance in their own stage without audience. I really respect that. Actually, a lot of great artists lived in their own world alone for a long time, even a life time. On the other hand, the aesthetic standard is created by human society, so it’s nearly impossible to escape.

I got the idea from Peter Fend that, art should do something more. I hope my works have the power to influence people, to make the world a better place. As a result, I will still live under the judgments. For me, I have to find the balance myself.

Midterm Pecha Kucha

I love the super intensive Pecha Kucha. I love ideas. I love the difference perspectives from the artists. Everyone loves.

Prompt 9 This is a Forgery

Is there anything I want to own so much that I even want to steal, to rob, or just forge? But art for me is something perceived by eyes, lock in mind. It’s not necessary own the concrete piece. If I want to forge, it must be a part of the other plan.

Promp 10 1-minute film

I began to rethink my way to create a work. I always want some clear ideas in my work. Can you think in an abstract way? Maybe this is the door to a new world for me.

Promp 11 What is image

It can be anything makes you feel.

But it’s still not real.

What is an Image (BD)

What is an Image (AA)

An image is a point of stillness. It is arrested visual information. A basic unit of comprehension. An image may be analyzed and organized in the context of other images (a thing next to another thing, and so on). This compilation of data may provide the illusion of a presentation of truth. But any legitimate claim to truth the image may have is swamped by the infinite multitude of unseen truths that it’s own assertions deny. One imagines a film reel—a series of images. One after the other each presents a truth of a unique perspective in a fleeting moment of time. But none of these images, arrested, can come close to the truth of the originary moment, because true experience is not a series of framed stills. Time may be broken down into nanoseconds for our comprehending pleasure, but understanding clocks, even building them, does not change the way we live time.

An image becomes poetry when it manages to look beyond its being looked at. A clock becomes art when placed next to another.  

What is an Image (MA)

What Is An Image?

            An image can be our most primal form of communication as well as our most complicated form of communication. We cannot escape images, yet, they are not a prison, they are expressions of freedom. An image can separate or it can connect. An image can be universal or it can be personal. An image can be fact or fiction. An image can be an idea or a command. An image can be good or bad. An image can be funny or serious. An image can be strong or weak. An image can be free or expensive. An image can be offensive or pleasant. An image can be theirs or ours. An image can be true or false. An image can be god or devil. An image can be dirty or clean. An image can be G or XXX. An image can be clear or blurred. An image can be interesting or boring. An image can be bright or dark. An image can be sweet or sour. An image can be words or pictures. An image can be seen with eyes open or closed. An image can originate from anywhere. An image can be made or taken. An image can be passive or aggressive. An image can be foreign or domestic. An image can be taken out of context. An image can be persuasive. An image can clarify or mislead. An image can be black and white or color. An image can be lost or found. An image can be loud or silent. An image can be imposing or modest. An image can be round or flat. An image can be right or wrong. An image can be graven. An image can be captured or shared. Image Comics. Image Awards. An image can be confusing. An image can be yours or mine. An image can be textured or flat. An image can be described. An image can be processed or natural. An image can be turned upside down. An image can be useless. An image can be useful. An image can be old or new. An image can be symbolic. Image = 1000 words. An image can be placed or removed. An image can be digital. An image can be a part of a collage or isolated. An image can be uploaded or deleted. An image can be edited. An image can be digitally remastered. An image can be language. An image can be love or hate. An image can be beautiful or ugly. Stock image. Royalty free image. An image can be still or move. An image can be positive or negative. An image can be powerful. The more I think about what an image could be, the more I realize that I may never have an answer. An image is infinity. An image is omnipotent. An image is God. 

What is an Image (LK)

The first thing that comes to my mind when I ask myself "what is an image?" is the anatomy of the eye. The eye is part of our interface with the universe. The brain stem must filter out information so as to not overload us. Is this what hallucinations are - too much stimuli? The photographic image also comes to mind. Photography is supposedly as real as it gets. "Seeing is believing", yet things are usually not what they seem. The human eye can see less than 1% of the electromagnetic spectrum. An image can be anything 2d or 3d, yet it is also can exist only in our mind (luckily we can imagine the full spectrum of light and what it might look like). Does this make the image less real? An image has different meaning for each person because we project our history onto it. Memories are images, yet we know they aren't entirely accurate and that the passing of time worsens the situation. I wonder how a person who was born blind would answer this question "what is an image?". The etymology of the word "image" is also so interesting. How does an image differ from imagination, or from self-image - the idea of ourselves? If I ask you to "imagine love" - what happens in your mind? Did you experience a feeling or did you see an image? For me it is a bodily sensation or a state of mind rather than an image, which reminds me that a meditation teacher used to say that thoughts were actually forms; he called them "thought forms". If images are in the mind and thoughts are forms, then I'm beginning to confuse myself. 

Here is a link to the great Eames film with images from the full range of human understanding, universe to the atom...http://www.powersof10.com/

What is an Image (JOW)

What is an image?

By Justin Walker

It’s about colors withheld, about a lot of things,

Meanings,

The long life of a lingering gaze,

The weight of an ambient sky resting on a world in flux,

The perception of theatre and effects,

The side-long glance at Sunday’s best reflecting off of each Sunday dress,

What I want you to know,

Silhouettes,  

What you want to see (secretly).

The “colored” sign,

Candy strung across each galaxy, which awaits tantrums of space to reveal something new and yet familiar, too.

Reach inward, look outward.

Think about them looking and me looking,

And how I could end up in that cold place where giggles just in earshot echo off the polished walls of a loosely guarded palace.

Deranged geniuses trade war stories of paths walked and theories worn until the nothingness and fullness of the infinite prevailed.

The image is the premium gateway to reality, us in response to energy, responding with energy.

A Short Script

By Justin Walker

Image: Why did you create me?

Me: I needed to see you.

Image: So, what am I? Why am I here? Are you not fulfilled?

Me:  I don’t know exactly, but I think when I first conceived of you, you were an amalgam of everything I’ve ever loved and grown to detest. So many things about this world, celestial to you, I’ve synthesized into a singular or series of concepts, even simply a way of working, with no clear purpose. I wish I could be fulfilled by just being, devoid of alienating impulses and behavioral quirks: maniacal constructions, a possessed mind endlessly circumambulating around yet another unfinished creation. Sometimes I feel I couldn’t live without repeatedly creating you. Sometimes I feel fine without even a thought of your existence, but it’s a fleeting pathetic old feeling, because in the back of my mind, beyond even that fully formed idea is something. There’s that thing that can never rest and refuses to cower away from the tyrannical presence of a finely defined world…

Image: …

Me:   In fact, you in your purest iteration feel like the only thing that’s real. I apologize if it seems to you like I’m nursing a sentimental mood, but lest the gravity of what I’m saying escapes you, lest you find yourself believing that I’ve heaped some terrible horrendous fate upon you by making you, know that I had not intended to harm you. In our world, they endearingly refer to you as a “labor of love.” I believe you’re an involuntary function of me. I believe you’re more than me, more than a heartbeat. Without you, I can scarcely say I’m much of anything at all. I keep making you, but you define me. You made me. So, Image, I ask you in all sincerity…why did you create me?

Image:  There are some things you shouldn’t know. For the sake of this form of life, I believe there are questions you should not ask. Deep down, I can feel the entirety of it. It’s terrifying. I know the eternal expanse. When an absence of boundaries is all that is real, which is the next step? Absolute freedom without context cannot sustain itself. It will always seek meaning. Nothingness or freedom absolute is unstable because in it everything that can exist must exist and that will always have to include the phenomenon of a definite direction or vector. Vectors exist to ensure unlimited options don’t become a prison. It is there so that the eternal and greatest good is reminded that it is pleasurable, and desirable. To move from a place of optimum comfort to an unknown is not strategically sound, unwise for propagation of a desirable state, but can occur when the pleasure in a state is nullified by normalization. A form of pleasure-entropy takes place—it changes. That veers into the beyond of the beyond of the beyond, not so much like harmonics of me or even you, but like an eternal reflection, never diminishing. That’s for a later conversation, but I must add my friend, these talks are ruining my sense of agency. I need to remain a specific object. So we have direction in the form of an image. I am a sign. I’m simply another instance, a vector in a continuous futile quest to grasp the elements of the multi-verse or what your world sometimes records as moments. I need to be simple to continue unabated. I am that thing you felt defying your very logic and tightly crafted models of probability. I created you, because in order for me to continue to exist in my purest form, I had to keep me from knowing myself. As an image, I exist at the fringes of what you want to say. You have to keep creating me. You are here to keep me moving in a direction…

Me: Brilliant. So, where are we going?

Image: …in.

 

What is an Image (AY)

What is an Image (RL)

I think an image is something different from the visual perception of the world that we constantly experience. The word “image” implies a kind of authorship: namely, that someone has edited it from the stream of experience because they thought it was important in some way. This editing can take place in any number of media: painting, drawing, photography, printmaking, writing (in the abstract,) digital imaging, anything that transforms the raw matter of life into a new thing. As an image can exist in any number of media, it can also serve an infinite number of ends, from self-expression, as in art, to selling products, as in advertising. The sum product of these disparate ends is what could be called our society’s visual culture, the images that define who we are and how we see ourselves.

What is an Image (CS)

An image is anything visual that has been deliberately created, where the creation deals with composition, framing, or the deliberate lack of composition, etc. A painting is an image because it has been deliberately created or put together. A photo is an image because it has been deliberately composed or just framed (even a snapshot counts, because the photographer was still deliberately creating an image out of real life). Even a picture that exists only in your mind is still an image, because you have deliberately composed it.

It is a representation of something - it refers to something other than itself. A photo (image) refers to something that exists in the 'real world' (non-image). A painting is representative - either of something in real life, or of something in the artist's/viewer's mind. Even an image in your mind refers to something else - what it's 'real' counterpart is, or a description you heard, or whatever inspired the image.

What is an Image (EB)

No Models Were Harmed During the Making of This Image

What is an Image (AR)

The question, ‘what is an image?’ is like the dilemma, “which came first, the chicken or the egg?” Someone like the artist, Julian Lethbridge, says, “an image could be anything.” Others, like my friend Nisa, who is a filmmaker, says, “an image is an idea.” Having thought about this question for almost 2 months, I would say that an image is a kind of process consisting of several elements. Starting with the complexity of an abstract thought, i.e. the ‘idea,’ to the final end product, which is the materialization of that idea into a kind visual form. We arrive at this visual end result through a series of processes vis-à-vis words.

In trying to define an image, however, language falls short due to the limitation of language, which is a kind of contradiction. Since most of the time an image is formulated via the articulation of an abstract thought, the expression of that thought, no matter how complicated it may be, is a syntactical process. Nonetheless, there will always be a disconnection between word and image. This dichotomy is manifested because we do not have the brain capacity to fully describe the visual landscape coexisting within an image. Words could only carry you so far until vision has to take over in order to extend the visual experience of what the eyes are seeing without a complete explanation.

Further, there is a hierarchy in the brain. We are highly visual creatures, therefore we tend to pay much more attention to vision rather than to voices or hearing; we give much more weight to vision than to anything else. Since we depend on vision to get around in the world, an image is what we decide; whatever the brain pays more attention to and processes. In that sense, attention and perception are married through a kind of hierarchical process, which determines what an image is. While I agree to a certain extent with Lethbridge’s and Nisa’s answer, I would argue that whether anything can be thought of as an image, which starts as an idea, is something that derives from a kind of process.

Thus, one can say that an image is the representation of an idea, reconstituted through a process, which is composed of several coexisting elements in a mode of expression and manifested or produced through different systems of production.

What is an Image (JT)

What is an Image (ZK)

An image is completely unique. An image holds a connection – a visual prompt and a mental interpretation. To me, an image should be some thing, to a blind man it may be a blend of sounds, smells, feels, and colors. This is no less an image. Memory is crucial to an image. When I search “image” on Google, most of the “images” are of space. Images are unique to humans. Can other animals see images? Can a dog see an image? Can babies? Is everything we see an image? I don’t think so. Blind people are a really interesting way of thinking about images. What if they were blind from birth? What if they weren’t?! Why did I look to Google images to find the answer? Here is my final image:

This is a Forgery (AR)

if i could forge someone's work it would be the work of Bruce Conner, who was part of the Avant-Garde film movement in the 50s and 60s, but also an interesting and incredible visual artist. some of his mixed media work along with his sculptures, is fascinating, filled with mysticism and incredibly complex; commenting on cultural and aesthetic production as well as mastery of making sense of randomness and chaos. the image below is only but a sample of his ability to transfigure materials into otherworldly works of art. I am obsessed with this piece on many levels. to begin, it is visually overwhelming, which relates back to my own work. the layers of texture and meaning are beyond language; it takes days to get through a small section of this piece. moreover, within the chaos, there is a kind of structure which is abstracted through precision, creating a tension between form and chaos.

for me, a forgery is worth doing, and worth doing well, if it is hard to forge. easy forgery has no meaning or importance because it doesn't call for brain power or talent. to be able to forge a complex work of art, is a completely different set of skills, which requires just as much talent as the artist's, who created the original. a work of art that deserves to be forged, in my opinion, would be a work of art that is extremely hard to copy. when i think of forgery, i tend to question the act of forgery itself. in terms of questioning the idea if a forgery is a work of art onto itself. a good forgery throws into question the authenticity of the original and that is a paradox. i think a forgery is done, on one level, due to the beauty and mystery of the art work that is being copied. value and originality play a roll as well. but for me, some of the the beauty of this image lies in the intricacy of the details and the choice of material and their arrangement. further, this image is hauntingly beautiful, since it directs the eye while at the same time distorting the viewers field of vision. if i could forge this piece, it would demonstrate my incredible ability to mimic the material world. i don't know where to find this piece, but i would hunt it down and study it for years, before doing the actual forgery. after im done with it, i would hide it and preserve it, in hopes that one day, it would be discovered and admired much in the same way as the original is/ was.

This is a Forgery (CS)

My absolute favorite painting in the world is Monet's Water Lilies (the series of paintings at the Musée de l'Orangeries in Paris, in particular). There's something about the colors, the half abstractedness, the brushstrokes and blends and faint figuration/imagery that is really beautiful. Each painting is very similar, with just enough differences in color schemes and composition to make it unique. They are made all the more interesting because Monet did them when he was going blind, which is essentially an artist's worst fear - and yet he managed to turn it into this.

I don't have a favorite - I love all the paintings in the series an equal amount. I have a poster of one of them in my room (I picked it at random out of a pile, since I couldn't decide which was my favorite). My mother, who is as in love with them as I am, painted her own version, just as big, which is now displayed in our living room at home.

In my opinion, in this case, it's not the artist that is important, not the name or prestige associated with the name "Monet," but the painting itself - which is why I like my mother's version just as much as his. The beauty of the painting, which is why I like it, comes from the painting itself, never mind who painted it. So, that being said, to commit a forgery, I would just paint my own version, like my mother did. I wouldn't sign it with his name, as his name isn't important, and I wouldn't pass it off as his. (Does that mean it's not a forgery, if I admit I did it myself?) The only reason I would recreate it is so that I could have it for myself - I'm not interested in creating a forgery to make money or gain prestige or pull one over on the public. I'm only interested so that I can have one for myself, in my home, to look at whenever I want, because it's beautiful and visually pleasing to have. So I would create my own version and keep it, just simply because I like to look at it.

This is a Forgery (HC)

This is a Picasso work that I originally saw at the Guggenheim. In museums I typically spend a very short amount of time looking at each work, but if a work really hits me, then I have to super awkwardly stand in front of it for an uncomfortably long time. This work completely hit me in this way. I think it is perfect. It's sad and lonely and kind of romantic at the same time. I feel that Picasso conveys a lot of strength and confidence in his work, and I think it's great to see someone who's work is so strong try to convey a fragility or exhaustion in this woman.

I believe the work is still at the Guggenheim. If stealing it were a movie, I'd totally have to be lowered down from the ceiling through the empty center section of the museum. Once I had the piece, I would just keep it to have around. It kind of feels like it should be in a kitchen, but I still am indecisive about the room it would be in. I could see it in a library/music room/living room upstairs room in a hypothetical huge apartment in the West Village or SoHo or the like.

This is a Forgery (BD)

An object I have always wanted to get my hands on is the statue of Big Boy. These large 300 lb, 5 ft tall, fiberglass statues stand outside every Big Boy Restaurant franchise and have been the target of many thieves and vandals throughout history. My obsession with pop culture as well as my own personal history with the restaurant chain makes the statue a Holy Grail type object. When the statues have been stolen in the past, they have garnered large amounts of media attention. The statues are usually found or returned within days of their disappearance. The fact that so many people have tried to acquire the statues but have been unsuccessful makes the theft seem like a challenge I would readily accept.

Big Boy was one of the first national restaurant chains to be located near the small town where I grew up. I can remember eating there many times as a small child and always being fascinated with the statue. I would usually treat Big Boy like he was a real person. I would talk to him, hug him, pose for pictures with him, etc… The fact that Big Boy was standing out front inviting me to come dine made the restaurant my favorite place to eat as a 5 year old. Unfortunately, the quality of our local restaurant went downhill and my family stopped eating there. Soon after, the diner closed its doors for good. It was heartbreaking. At age 18 I moved to a larger city and discovered that Big Boy was still thriving there. It was also open 24 hours. Big Boy became part of many new memories, this time involving 3 am stops after a night of partying with friends. It was kind of like running into a friend from elementary school and picking up where things left off as adults. I found that, thanks to alcohol, I would still talk to, hug, and be photographed with my dear friend Big Boy.

That brings us to today, where I would love for Big Boy to come be my roommate. Stealing the statue will be difficult because many of the restaurants are open 24 hours. I will have to find a location in a small town that closes at least for a few hours at night so there is a chance at not been seen. Because the statue is so heavy, I will need a team of friends as well as a large truck to haul it with. This will be one time that it will pay off that most of my friends are degenerate hoodlums. Once we find the right location and the right team, it shouldn’t be hard to sneak in and grab the statue under the cover of darkness, although we will probably have to scope out the location in advance and maybe disable any spotlights a day or two in advance. The real trick will be replacing the real statue with a forgery so it will not be noticed. Actually, who am I kidding, I totally would want it to be noticed. Everyone that steals a Big Boy gets caught. Half the challenge and the fun is doing it and actually getting away with it. I would probably replace Big Boy with a ridiculous ransom note or a large pile of ground beef to signify the hamburger he was named after. My friends and I would then deliver Big Boy to where ever we would decide to store him, and then drive off to a 24 hour location of the restaurant to celebrate the success of the theft.

This is a Forgery (CR)

I've always been interested in Native American culture, so a few years ago I took a class on Native American art and artistic practices. This specific piece is a rug, a traditional Navajo flat-weaving from the 60's on show in the Denver Art Museum Collection. I'm so enthralled by the patterns on these pieces, and this is only one of thousands of examples. These pieces hold a really strong spiritual existence, as well as an artistic manifestation. Thus, a reproduction would skew the importance of the piece itself: first, I wouldn't be spiritually connected to the weaving, as the Dineh people that traditionally weave these pieces would be. Second, the artistic practice of weaving the rug would be artificial. The means of weaving are passed down through generations in a tribe, and I would thus externally receive knowledge about the practice, creating an insincere experience of creation in comparison to the original.

I've also read a lot of literature about appropriation of Native American culture. Especially in the 60's and 70's, with the New Age movement came a large influx of commercial objects with Native American symbols and themes attached to them. I've read numerous accounts of Native American reaction to this, and feel strongly against it. It turns a deeply rooted spiritual culture into a commodity for consumption, which is really devastating to me. Granted there are a number of tribes across the country that hold open ceremonies solely for tourist income. However, I'm just ver sensitive to the idea of taking cultural and spiritual symbolism and art objects and turning them into artificial objects only for consumption. With this in mind, if I ever were to go through and create a forgery of this piece, I wouldn't sell it, but rather keep it for my own personal reflection and/or use.

This is a Forgery (EB)

An image that I would like to forge will be one of Cezanne's "Card Players." This morning I read this article and it got me thinking about how there are so many question marks around "Card Players." I also remembered that about a year ago I went to the Met to see the exhibit, Cezanne's Card Players, and I was honestly shocked that instead of all five originals I saw only three and the other two were black and white photographs of the works. Huge disappointment!
From the article, it seems that there is a big mystery not only about how many watercolor studies Cezanne actually made, but also about the fact that the fifth oil painting is no where to me found. Sources claim that it might be either in Qatar, Greece, or Russia, but these are pure speculations. The article states, "Painting was said to be up for sale for $250 million. Some art dealers contend it was bought by the Qatar royal family; others speculate that it was purchased by the heir to another Greek shipping fortune, Philip Niarchos; still others say it could also have disappeared into a collection in Russia. But no one is saying for sure." So since it might be in my motherland, for this forgery assignment, I would like to claim that the missing Cezanne is actually in my possession and I am willing to put it up for an action while staying anonymous. I will probably hire a professional forger to create a masterful copy. Once uncovered this can become THE scandal of the century!

This is a Forgery (AY)

I used to dream of living at the Met, sleeping in the period rooms at night and eating cupcakes on the steps by day. I have since settled for knowing my way around it, finding new shortcuts and hiding places where you can stay a while and pretend you belong. One of my most coveted objects is one of the largest in the collection, the most permanent. It would be hard to move. At 115 x 84 1/8 inches, it's so big that if it was in my living room, I'd be living in a 19th century luxurious home, hanging out with these lounging ladies. It would become a stage set. I want it.

Since it's too big to forge (and I can't paint that well) I decide to steal it. Dressed as a promising and pretentious British curator I would convince the met to sign my papers for an important London art fair. With my papers, dressed in overalls, I would stay after hours with my team, dismantle it, fold it and hide it in the Japanese galleries. Take a nap. At the dead of night, we walk out. The painting would be folded, so it could be anything inside. Back in my dorm, I move all the furniture to the common room and remain alone with the painting. it is too big for my room so I have it at an angle. I curl up in the corner it makes with the wall and sleep soundly, dreaming of having such fabulous dresses.

This is a Forgery (RL)

I saw a documentary on PBS one time about Carhenge, a monument in the rural U.S.A. that imitates the formations of Stonehenge with automobiles instead of rocks. The man who made it had some interest in or was inspired by the original monument, and engaged with it by making a copy with materials that he had at hand. I wonder whether this desire to engage with something that inspires one is at the root of all copies and forgery. It is certainly true of musicians who cover songs by other musicians. The form of the thing is the same, but one's own hand and mind have been added to the equation. I'd always admired Frank Stella's paintings in museums and decided to make a copy of one of his black paintings in my own way. Making it, I was reminded of something an art teacher of mine said in the midst of a wave of academic cheating at our school: "art is the only discipline in which plagiarism is encouraged."

This is a Forgery (ES)

I have been obsessed with the View of Toledo for as long as I can remember. I’m not sure when or where I first saw an image of this painting, but all I knew is that I needed to see it in person someday. I’m not sure when I first saw the painting in person, but all I knew is I needed to own it. I’m not sure when I purchased my first poster with this image on it, but all I knew is that it wasn’t good enough. I’m not sure how I first broke into the Met to steal this painting, but all I knew was that I was going to walk up the stairs, turn right, and take what was rightfully mine. I’m not sure where the guards were when I replaced this painting with my framed poster, but all I knew is that no one would ever know. I’m not sure why I’m finally confessing all of this, but all I know is that nobody loves this painting as much as I do. I’m not sure if anyone is going to make a fuss about this painting being in the hands of its rightful owner, but all I know is that it is mine and it always will be –forever. I dare anyone to try to take it from me. I am not sure who Eduardo Santana is, but all I know is that I am Doménikos Theotokópoulos and people call me “El Greco”. I viewed this view first, and I should be the only one who gets to view it. [STOP]