Study Task 02 - Parody and Pastiche

In Frederic Jameson's 'Postmodernism: Or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism' and Linda Hutcheon's 'The Politics of Postmodernism: Parody and History,' both parties discuss the concept of Postmodernism and the parody it entails.
Jameson's adopts Jean Baudrillard's concept of Simulacrum - this being the concept of a person or thing being replaced or imitated with a representation as opposed to it's reality. He paints a dystopic picture of the post-modernist present, which he believes is influenced by a loss of connection with history resulting in a lack of originality or authenticity. It is Jameson's view that post modernity provides nothing other than emptied out stylisations of history that can be commodified and re-consumed, something which he describes as 'Pastiche.' Speaking on the subject, he claims 'Pastiche is, like parody, the imitation of a peculiar or unique, idiosyncratic style, the wearing of a linguistic mask, speech in a dead language. But it is a neutral practice of such mimicry, without any of parody's ulterior motives, amputated of the satiric impulse, devoid of laughter.' (Jameson, 1991: 17) Here, Jameson identifies that pastiche mindlessly selects styles without reasoning, causing the past to blur into a meaningless weakening of historicity. 
In contrast to Jameson, Hutcheon believes 'through a double process of installing and ironizing, parody signals how present representations come from past ones and what ideological consequences derive from both continuity and difference.' ( Hutcheon, 1989: 93) Her viewpoint here is that post-modern parody does not disregard the context of past representations, however instead uses irony as a tool of acknowledgement that we are inevitably separated from the past.
Ultimately, in regard to post-modernism, Jameson's viewpoint is negatively charged - whereas Hucheon takes on a more positive disposition, criticising Jameson's inability to see the movement as embracive, reproductive, and even reinforcing of culture, drawing from it as inspiration, with development alongside it as a parallel. 

Perhaps the greatest examples of parody and pastiche within the design industry are Andy Warhol's 1960's silk-screen prints featuring Marilyn Monroe. Andy Warhol is best-known for his stylization of imagery derived from brands, logos, pictures and newspaper articles, reflecting the popular culture of the time by re-stylizing ready-made images (typically with repetition or the addition of colours) to transform them into works of his own. 

Andy Warhol: Marilyn Diptych, 1962.

Warhol's works have been reimagined, repeated and reinvented endlessly since their production in the 1960's by artists including Richard Pettibone, Elaine Sturtevant, David LaChappelle and acclaimed street-artist Banksy. Each appropriation of the original work(s) attempts to better reflect the culture and time of re-creation, with even the original artwork by Warhol himself arguably an appropriation of the photographer's original image of Marilyn - a publicity shot by Gene Korman for the film Niagara, made in 1953. For example, Banksy's 'Kate Moss, 2005' is undeniably inspired by Warhol's Marilyn, however instead of Monroe used world-renowned supermodel Kate Moss, reflecting that time's equivalent of Marilyn in terms of fame and prominence within popular culture. Also, David LaChapelle's 'Amanda As Marilyn, 2007' re-analyses Warhol's work through the medium of photography.

Richard Pettibone: Andy Warhol, "Marilyn Monroe," 1964, 1968.

Elaine Sturtevant: Warhol's Marilyn Monroe, 1924-2004.

Amanda As Marilyn (Red) By David LaChapelle, 2007.

Banksy: Kate Moss, 2005.

Another example of parody and pastiche comes in the form of Walker Evans' 'Alabama Tenant Farmer Wife, 1936,' or more specifically the works produced by Sherrie Levine and Michael Mandiberg respectively thereafter. 

Walker Evans: 'Alabama Tenant Farmer Wife, 1936.'

In 1936 Walker Evans photographed the Burroughs, a family of sharecroppers in Depression era Alabama. In 1979 in Sherrie Levine rephotographed Walker Evans' photographs from the exhibition catalog 'First and Last' to produce the series entitled 'After Walker Evans.' This became a landmark of post-modernism - though received criticism as a 'feminist hijacking of patriarchal authority, a critique of the commodification of art, and an elegy on the death of modernism.' Despite the criticism, the series also received praise from those who identified the  series' representation of our inability to create meaning and recapture the past. 

Sherrie Levine: 'After Walker Evans, 1979.' 

In 2001 Michael Mandiberg scanned the same photographs before creating AfterWalkerEvans.com and AfterSherrieLevine.com to 'facilitate their dissemination as a comment on how we come to know information in this burgeoning digital age.'