celebrate theft

Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent.

Any idea, burst of creativity, drop of genius or innovation, is always a recombination of things past – whether we like it or not.

But I find this a comforting thought, because all I have to do to get one, is devour films, music, books, paintings, poems, photographs, conversations, dreams, trees, architecture, street signs, clouds, light and shadows.

And then I’m to proceed as follows:

‘Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination.

Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul.

If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic.

Don’t bother concealing your thievery – celebrate it if you feel like it.

And remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: “It’s not where you take things from – it’s where you take them to.”‘

(I celebrate that I stole this from Paul Arden’s Whatever You Think, Think the Opposite, which celebrated that it stole from Jim Jarmusch, who celebrated what he stole from Jean-Luc Godard.)

This is how I first put theory to the audiovisual test, and with the art work above this phrase I show how Mark Malazarte did it (whom I found through Faris Yakob’s ‘talent imitates, genius steals’ blogpost Nothing is Original, which I found through some other site, but I can’t back-track that far.

(photo theft insurance stolen from myriapod on flickr)