If you have old paintings, do not despair. Retain your memories but detourn them so that they correspond with your era. Why reject the old, if one can modernize it?
—Asger Jorn

What intrigues me with this project is the subject of modified, redirected art. How artists get inspired by existing art pieces, found on flea markets and in thrift stores and how they transform those found dusty treasures into something else. Something better, more personal, funnier, weirder or more interesting. 

Also I’m intrigued by the fact that this specific art form has a long history, but it didn’t find a common name yet, or an artist's movement. But artists have been working with second hand art, remodifying it and repurposing it into something new, for more than a century. 
So why did this genre of art not get so much attention? Is it because it’s not an ‘original’ art piece? But why should a redirected, modified, piece of art be less important or interesting than a not modified, redirected, piece of art? Does it deserve less attention because of the methodology?

With Redirections I would like to not only high-light this particular genre of remodified art, but also the ideas behind the work. Who are the artists that are taking part of this movement at this particular moment in time, and what are their motives? Why use flea markets and thrift stores as a point of departure? Why add new and different layers of narratives to an existing piece of art or film? Is it about recycling materials? Is it about using something that’s already there, but then transform it into something else? Is there a common denominator? 

A jump back in time

After the first lockdown in Amsterdam in 2020 when the shops opened up again after several months of closure, I went into a thrift store by chance. In a dusty corner (the art department) I found a painted portrait that was kind of weird, in an interesting way. 
I thought I could maybe paint it over, change it a bit, to make it even weirder. The pricetag was 7,50 euro and I bought it. As I got excited by the final result (even weirder indeed) I decided to do some research on the subject of repurposed thrift store art. And I realized that there are loads of artists and filmmakers going to flea markets and thrift stores, buying second hand art and found footage, for the pleasure of repurposing it into something else. As a matter of fact, artists have been doing this for a long time, but this genre of art just didn’t get so much exposure. 

The work of repurposed thrift store art didn’t find a common name yet; it has been called Modification Paintings (by Asger Jorn) and ‘Re-Directed Art’ (by David Irvine), other people call it up-cycled art or second hand upgraded art. Since I’m working within this genre of visual art myself, I wanted to know more about this specific artform. But also I wanted to know more about the people behind it. 

Who are my artistic soulmates in the flea markets and thrift stores…?

Approaches

Until now, almost no curator has approached this subject as far as I know. There was a show in 1959 in Paris, where Asger Jorn exhibited a group of paintings at the prominent Galerie Rive Gauche. Not only did he rework second hand paintings with his own brush, modifying their respective surfaces, but he also wrote a text describing his technique as a recovery of certain iconographic archetypes. Instead of making a mockery of these kitsch paintings, he articulated some of their inherent folk-art values. 

The exhibition was not well received. However, it has since become legendary. Jorn’s modification paintings have long been a neglected chapter in the Danish artist’s biography. Yet from today’s perspective these high/low art approaches are recognized by keen-eyed viewers as mirrors reflecting the historicity of modern painting. Such modifications of art are a painterly version of  “détournement,” a Situationist technique, described in 1956 by Guy Debord and Gil Wolman, as the systematic revaluation of “prefabricated aesthetic products.” For Jorn, who co-founded and financially supported the Situationist International, the 1959 Galerie Rive Gauche exhibition, showcased his implementation of a fundamental aesthetic critique, in which he appropriates a relatively discredited artistic source as “his” own material, then applies his own iconography, and his language to that particular prefabricated piece of art.

Then, jump forward, there was a show in New York in 2019 called Strategic Vandalism: The Legacy of Asger Jorn’s Modification Paintings, with works by Enrico Baj, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Vidya Gastaldon, Wade Guyton/Stephen Prina, Rachel Harrison, Ray Johnson, Jacqueline de Jong, Asger Jorn, Mike Kelley, Martin Kippenberger, Per Kirkeby, Lee Krasner, Albert Oehlen, Francis Picabia, Stephen Prina, R.H. Quaytman, Arnulf Rainer, Julian Schnabel, Jim Shaw, Gedi Sibony, Alexis Smith, Daniel Spoerri, John Stezaker, Betty Tompkins, and David Wojnarowicz.

In terms of group shows, that’s it as far as I know; one show in 1959 in Paris and one show in 2019 in New York. However, individual artists show their remodified work on a steady basis all over the world.

Challenges and Cliches

In terms of disciplines and materials there are various directions of repurposed thrift store art; many painters, but also artists who work with found photographs and objects, and artists who work with second hand cross-stitching embroideries. But there are also cliches within this genre, such as the fact that there are many white male western artists who tend to add either Star Wars or Walt Disney figures to their second hand paintings. Funny, but also a bit simple. However, there are also exceptions like the Polish artist Arek Parasite, who wrote a manifesto on the subject of Parasitism. In this manifesto various statements about parasites are collected and put on a row. Point of departure is that an artist per definition is a parasite. 

SOCIAL PARASITE PAINTING  (Roma Bronx Brno)

One of Parasite's projects included unemployed Roma people from the Czech Republic who for three weeks became artists in their own right, remodeling existing pieces of art into something new and different. Here the artist is taking the ideas of remodified art to a new level, by engaging with vulnerable communities and giving them a place to work on art. Parasite called the show Social Painting and all the profits from the sale went back to the artists and the Roma community.

I think that the example of remodified, repurposed art, being used as community art for a collective experience, can be of great value and transformative for both participants and for the general public. Arek Parasite shows us a way of expanding art and art practices into something bigger, where the sociopolitcal aspect is central, beyond and outside white cubes and exhibition spaces.