Meme:

a concept for discussion of evolutionary principles in explaining the spread of ideas and cultural phenomena as defined by Richard Dawkins. Memes spread through the behavior that they generate in their hosts. A meme can be modified through replication. An internet meme is a concept that spreads rapidly from person to person via the internet.

Lauren Kaelin

Kaelin paints stills from reproducible, shareable, and recognizable internet videos and images. They challenge the theories of Walter Benjamin who, in a popular essay The Work of Art in an Age of Mechanical Reproduction, argued that a work of art lost its true value when reproduced. Her art straddles the border of fine art and internet virality.

Eva and Franco Mattes

This sculptural work is a copy of a cat internet meme with the caption "Don't Ask" below the image. The fact that this was made for a gallery show in which the couple imitated the work of another artist provides a double entendre to the concept of meme.

Francis Alys

Alys works from reproductions with commercial sign painters. As the imitative process continues, it asks questions about artists' relationships with painting and authorship. An infinite potential is implied, with the concept of memes reproducing and multiplying throughout the process.

Fashion Trends

It's hard to ignore fashion trends when researching reproduction through imitation in art. These Jeffrey Campbell shoes are semi-affordable designer knockoffs, which in turn are imitated for an even more affordable price. Other imitations in fashion follow seasonal trends that can be grouped and divided into categories like Typography and Slogans.

Mathew Zefeldt

Zefeldt uses clip-art style copy and pasting in his artwork with techniques reminiscent of MS Paint. His paintings invite viewers to consider the crisis of individuality in an era of instantaneous image sharing and replication. Like the other artists in this category, Zefeldt's time and skill put into his pieces juxtapose the effortless ability to share an image with a single click of a button. 

Francis Alys

Francis Alys is an artist I learned about somewhat accidentally during the course of this assignment. I had been researching his paintings for another class when I came across his work in book arts and performance!

His books (none of which I've read yet) are narratives of performances but utilize a wide range of media, which I'm immensely interested in doing in my own art.

I've researched him quite a bit and there are some specific pieces that I found fascinating:

•  he stopped in a crowded area and stared at the sky until a crowd gathered around him, wondering what he was looking at
• he traveled around the world looking for his "doppelgangers" or people that reminded him of himself (physically, I think) and photographed them usually from behind
• he has used a fox, a mouse, and a peacock, all in different art "installations"

I find his documentation technique really interesting and will be reconsidering some aspects of my documentation. 

image from Alys' Doppelganger series

video of him pushing a block of ice around

Question for consideration:
What is the difference between making art and just doing something kind of strange?