Robert Rauschenberg Combine Series

In the past the process of appropriation has been such an important part of my working practice. I use appropriation as a method of communicating as it uses an existing language, one that already has a shared meaning.

This has therefore increased my awareness of appropriation within other work, in Robert Rauschenberg's combine work, Rauschenberg appropriates pieces of furniture and rubbish found on the street into sculptural constructions. I was interested in re appropriating these objects back into a commercial form, a commercial aesthetic that has developed to represent the mass branding of todays consumerism. By presenting these sculptures in the format of an Ikea flatpack I am trying to bring these sculptures into a visual language that is recognisable and iconic of culture outside of the art world. Ikea flatpack's are a symbol of global consumerism and something that reaches a very wide audience and is highly accessible and egalitarian.

I have recently been looking at the authenticity of originals and alternatively the lack of authenticity attached to multiples. By the implication of mass production through digital print and by the implication of commercial furnishing being sold on a global level, I am attempting to parody the notion of authenticity in abstract expressionism and gestural painting. Using a tight drawing tool on photoshop to meticulously recreate a painterly intuitive gesture created by Rausenberg in seconds I am in attempting to satire the whole notion of abstract painting being a "freeing and spiritual experience" and something that "enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time" this is something I have never experienced whilst painting and an idea I find somewhat over romantic.