Wait, I know that work...

I was browsing on Art Moco and came across this image:

 

Bahbak Hashemi-Nezhad, Untitled (Orderly Conduct), C-type print

I thought to myself, "I know that artist. Discovered him at VOLTA last year." Large format photos of people on a city street all doing "the same thing." But when I read the artist's name on Art Moco I realized that this was a case of mistaken art identity. Bahbak Hashemi-Nezhad was not familiar and that is a name I would have trouble forgetting. So I did a little research. This is the mage I was thinking of when I saw the above work:

Peter Funch, Informing Informers, 2000-2008

I have collected works by Peter Funch and I'm a big fan. I am intrigued to find similar works out there. This is not the first time I have run across works of art by different artists that look similar. Ideas often generate in multiple brains at the same time. And not just for artists. When I started Mixed Greens as a website dedicated to selling contemporary art, there was no other site like it out there. (artnet.com was the predominate art site in 1995). Mixed Greens launched within months of six other contemporary art e-commerce websites. (Remember nextmonet.com? How about iTheo.com?) We all had the same idea at the same time. 

But what does it mean for artists? It can't be good for your career if people are always going, "Is that so and so's work?" when they are looking at your work. Or can it? Is the "winner" in this case the artist whose work digs in to the collective mind of the market? The artist with the more aggressive dealer? Or perhaps it is as simple as who better executes the idea? 

Check out these artists websites here and here and make your own comparisons. They are actually very different artists who happen to have a few photographs in common.

Comments

[Kathryn]

I think it's a real issue.

I can't find the article, but there were two installations that featured a window and veils that represented beams of light coming from the window, and there was a good stir over it, if one was copying the other.

But I think the core issue is that we're all looking at a lot of the same mass media, and looking at all the same art magazines (as Ani Difranco said "and all the radios agree with all the TVs, and the magazines agree with all the radios, and I keep hearing the same damn song everywhere I go") so no surprise there are going to be 10 images of women stuffing their faces and making a mess, and 10 popular pieces on the theme of soap (both real cases).

What is key is maybe a little bit of a ding to both artist for just reaching into the ether and pulling a cup of what's floating around. Artist must go beyond, to think differently. If you're doing the same thing as everyone else, it's time to push yourself to do better.

That's my 2 cents.

Kathryn

[Paige West]

Thank you for your 2 cents Kathryn. I think it it is worth more than 2, actually.