Pastiche

Part One:

1)  How is this pastiche a reworking of the past?

This photo is an example of pastiche art because it is reworking a very famous photograph of the Beatles walking across Abbey Road.  That photo was also the cover of their album, which was also called Abbey Road.

2)  Is this pastiche only or pastiche with parody? How?

I believe this is a pastiche parody because it is using Lego figures to represent the Beatles walking.  If it were other people walking across the street it would definitely be less funny, but because the artist decided to use Lego figures and it brought about an entirely different point of view.  The Lego figures make it comical, whereas if it were with actual people then it would be less funny.

3) How is this work a questioning of the status of the original?

I do not believe that this photograph is questioning the status of the original, if anything it is amplifying it.  This photograph is a very well known photograph and is one of the most famous works of art in the world.   I believe that what the artist of this picture was doing was simply showing how well known and how easily recognizable it is by taking something like Legos figures and replacing the Beatles and still having people know exactly what it is the artist is showing.

Part Two:

1)  How is this pastiche (the individual graphs and the whole site) a reworking of the past?

This website is a great example of pastiche.  The individual graphs talk about random different things, my favorite being “Maybe Sir Mix-A-Lot Was Under Oath” and the two factors they were examining were “Likes Big Butts” and “Cannot Lie”.  Under “Likes Big Butts” was Ice-T, Kanye West, and Various Other Rappers.  Under “Cannot Lie” was George Washington, Christians, and People Under Oath.  In the middle of those two graphs was Sir Mix-A-Lot.  I actually found that to be very creative and very funny.  The website takes all of the graphs and puts them into one succinct area and makes it very easy to see all of the graphs at once.

2) Is this pastiche only or pastiche with parody? How?

I believe this is pastiche with parody because it is playing on different situations and using humor to bring attention to them.  Just like with the Sir Mix-A-Lot example, it is taking a popular song and working it in a completely different way and it adds a lot of humor to it as well.

3)  How is this work a questioning of the status of the original?

This is making a joke of the original song, so I guess I would say it is questioning the status of the original because it is making fun of it.  At the same time, however, it is literally taking the first line of the song “I Like Big Butts and I Cannot Lie” and dividing it into two separate “groups”.  That line is one of the most commonly known lines in pop culture, and almost everyone recognizes that it is from Sir Mix-A-Lot.