Last week I stumbled across these weird images:
Do you recognize them?
After some scratching my head, I summoned the power of the internet and a simple „where do these images come from?“ brought the answer within minutes: They were made by Glaswegian art group Henry VIII’s Wives. And yes, they are aged citizens in their neighbourhood reenacting „Iconic Moments of the Twentieth Century“ See how many you can recognize.
They also reminded me of Jon Haddock’s reinterpretation of iconic moments in the real world and movies that I saw a couple of years ago, where Haddock drew them in the isometric view of computer games like Civilization or The Sims. Same moments as above:
He did a lot more. They are all worth a closer look, click here. (most of Jon Haddock’s work is worth the look)
I am generally fascinated by those reinterpretations. They demonstrate how original images truly deserve the term iconic. I mean, they were shot long before I was born. Nonetheless, we immediately recognize them again, no matter how sketchy the reenactment.
lauren says
it’s quite amazing that these images come up again and again for appropriation. i did a series of them where i replaced the main figure with the image of a lightbulb filament (based on a series of paintings i had been doing). even with this rather abstract substitution, the works still conveyed something like the originals and i love this about iconic works. they are greater than the sum of their parts.