Illegal Art

openDemocracy, 18 June 2006

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How does copyright law affect the future of art? openDemocracy presents a still from a new exhibition exploring the high cost of creative copyright.

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illegal art
Untitled, 2002, Ai Kijima

The Illegal Art: Freedom of Expression in the Corporate Age exhibition seeks to celebrate art that has skirted legal issues of corporate copyright infringement. It argues that current intellectual property law has a silencing effect which discourages the creation of new works – if these laws had been in place “back in the day”, whole genres such as collage, hiphop, and Pop Art might never have existed.

This print juxtaposes Stan Lee and Steve Ditko’s iconic Spider-man creation with recycled pieces of fabric. The artist, Ai Kijima, incorporates images of popular culture with textiles from curtains, vintage kimonos, table clothes and dresses to create a mishmash of new perspectives using familiar objects.

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