cop: study task 1

Rowland Barthes addresses the issues concerning artist and author ownership in his 1967 essay ‘The Death of The Author’. This relates to the contemporary Illustrative work as a question; who owns the art we make? Barthes says ‘the writer can only imitate a gesture […] never original’. Is he saying that nothing is original nowadays? In this new social media world especially, copyright claims are becoming more frequent. So it begs the question, who does own it? The consumer? The creator? The publisher? This short essay will discuss the probability with ownership, using an example of Katsushika Hokusai’s artwork.

The artist is undoubtable, Hokusai is famous for many pieces of art he created. His name is recognisable everywhere. His most subjectively famous piece ‘The Great Wave off Kanagawa’, is repurposed and redesigned everywhere. Does this mean it still belongs to him? Rowland Barthes says ‘language knows a ‘subject’, not a ‘person’’, is this Rowland saying that people only see the piece of art and not the creator behind it? This can be relevant when looking at the ‘Great Wave’ from Hokusai, as it has been repurposed into a lot of modern items, such as mugs, t-shirts, posters. The question is do people buy these items to support the artist, or because of the piece of art?

We have to pose the question whether people would buy these merchandises knowing the artist or just because it looks nice? This subject of ownership is something that Michael Rock touches upon in his essay ‘The Designer as Author’, Rock states ‘[…] most design is done in a collaborative setting’. Some may interpret Rock as saying no design is completely by one person, it includes many others. It could be argued that Hokusai’s art was like this, as with traditional Japanese woodblock printing there are many artists involved in the process, from the carver, the inker, the printer, the publisher. So does this beg the question of whether Hokusai’s art is solo or collaborative, if you come up with the idea does it make it truly only yours?

Hokusai’s ‘the Great Wave’ was created within Japan’s period of isolation, meaning he had no contact with the outside world other than Japan. His influences were minimal, lending to the idea that he could be the sole influencer of his work. It is only later on, when the country was reopened, that people started to see his work. It began to be repurposed as you can see in the picture, in this modern world being collaborated with ‘Pokemon’ which was created in 1995, a very long time after Hokusai, however Hokusai’s influence still remained in this contemporary era. This idea can be heard in Barthes’ essay in his ending quote, ‘the birth of the reader must be at the cost of the death of the Author’. Hokusai’s work is only recognised properly in this modern era after his death.