“Nothing of me is original. I am the combined effort of everybody I’ve ever known.”
– Chuck Palahniuk from “Invisible Monsters”

“If feels a bit reductive…” “What does that mean?” “…Look it up.”

 

Originality is a big lie that artists tell themselves. We like to think our intellect is so great that everything we think is solely our idea. But we fail to realize, all art comes from art. Can we even be ‘original’ in the first place? No. The true masters have made magic, by combining two, three or four or more previous ideas to create something totally new.

Artists are the closest thing to gods on earth, and even we can not make something out of nothing. Everything evolves from a base idea. You can define originality two ways, one which one argues originality is coming up with a whole new concept while the other one is more of a compromise that one is original if one can take shreds of existing ideas to form one of your own. I think the latter definition is more reasonable. And If we adhere to the latter idea, then it is quite a paradoxical idea of originality. We have more of a reason to believe in creativity than originality.

Anything you think already exist because you are thinking it, all art is theft. Picasso said it best, “bad artists imitate, good artists steal.” What would Jay-Z be without the old songs he sampled? Or Big Daddy Kane and Biggie for that matter? Before GaGa there was Madonna. And before Madonna there was Marilyn Monroe. That’s a bit, reductive. Call it Blonde Ambition or not, but Madge isn’t the only one who’s got a bone to pick with Mother Monster. Colette Justine, the legendary downtown performance artist who often simply goes by “Colette,” is accusing Lady Gaga of stealing her ideas in a new video titled, “Looking for Lady Gaga.”

Dear Colette, you are unique, just like everyone else. ;-P

 

Watch This Space – Pop: because maybe, it was born this way #kanyeshrug

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