ANIMAL is a bit obsessed with this new Tumblr project from Derek Frech and Alison Feldish that presents two similar art works side by side. WhoWoreItBetter.Info is addictive. It’s incredible how works decades and continents apart have striking resemblances. It’s depressing how works not decades and continents apart have striking resemblances.
We asked the creators about their motivations.
Where the two of us meet is that we are both highly concerned with the relationship between capitalism and art. Partly it’s the ego and a drive for fame/money that degrades a more idealized potential of making, and we both consider artistic collaboration to be a move that negates some of that ego. What becomes most interesting with the internet is that a thing that allows accessibility and exposure for artists is also the thing that exposes a lot of the direct influences. So many trends and aesthetic decisions seem to sweep across platforms as people make and upload and reblog and so forth that in a way, many young artists end up collaborating whether they intend to or not. We’ve never intended this blog to be a criticism of the originality of particular works, but a criticism of the concept of originality. Ideas are far more interesting when multiple people are developing them.
Oh, and here’s our contribution.
