The say, “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” They also say, “good artists borrow, great artists steal.” But when Marvin Gaye’s estate trustees sued Robin Thicke and Pharrell over “Blurred Lines,” I don’t think they were thinking along those lines.
We live in a weird time where everyone can upload their own content straight to the world. So if we’re all being inspired by each other, where does the line get drawn?
TikTok exists essentially for us all to imitate each other and even the past (the videos of families recreating old photos while Simple Plan’s Just A Kid plays underneath made my 2005 heart burst into tears). We are a few Internet trends away from the whole world coalescing into one giant meme.
But maybe that online collective is what’s preserving our humanity through this fresh pandemic-y hell.
Queue the cornerstone of the humanities, a pillar of elite society: the high art world. Perhaps the most notorious take on imitation as a form of flattery came earlier in the quarantine when Getty Museum issued a challenge for people to recreate their favorite art using only objects found around the home.
Across the world people took this challenge to heart – some re-creating works of the Renaissance era using lasagna noodles and others transforming their vacuum into a harp. A fucking harp.
It’s inspirational and loud and speaks volumes on how important creative innovation is in our society right now. The only innovative thing I’ve done recently is use a fork to eat ice cream. Which, I argue, is a form of art in its own way.
One of our local artists, Cait Brady, is one of many who adapted a day in the life of quarantine to art history.
Not sure about y’all, but I’m getting massive Little Women vibes from this one. I might have even looked for the infamous water bottle.
These are awesome, and we’re absolutely into it. But it begs the question: what are the rest of you weirdos working on?
Whether it’s an imitation of an older art form, a painting, a sculpture, a photo series, or even a fucking self portrait you took on the toilet, send it over. We want it all!
Bonus points if you can tell us what these paintings are, because we have absolutely no idea.
Photos courtesy of Cait Brady
