Cultural Appropriation

According to Marita Sturken and Lisa Cartwright in Practices of Looking,

"Cultural appropriation is the process of 'borrowing' and changing the meaning of cultural products, slogans, images, or elements of fashion (83)." 

This short video explores how street artists such as Banksy undergo the 

process of appropriating images that belong to specific 

cultural and historical contexts.

Street Art: "Napalm"

Artist: Banksy

Appropriated Images

The young girl from Huynh Cong Ut's 'Children fleeing a Napalm strike' 

photograph taken during the Vietnam War. 

Two of the most recognizable American commercial figures... 

Mickey Mouse

Ronald McDonald

Appropriation artists use specific 'texts of art or popular culture' to 

communicate a political message (Sturken and Cartwright 82).

Banksy's Napalm uses guerilla tactis which aims for corporate sabotage (Chaffee 81).

What if we were to appropriate images within an original text?

How is the meaning of the original text affected?

According to Marita Sturken and Lisa Cartwright,

The process of interpreting appropriated images is the continuous negotiation 

of new and previously attributed meanings (84).

Certeau's "poaching" concept is relevant to Banksy's illustration because its new meaning is somewhat influenced on the meanings derived from the original texts (84).

Sources:

Chaffee, Lyman G. Political Protest and Street Art: Popular Tools for Democratization in Hispanic Countries. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1993. Print.

Sturken, Marita and Lisa Cartwright. Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture. Oxford University Press. New York: 2009. Print.