Pastiche

Amanda Lyons

Citation-

2011 June 5th, What Exactly Does the Word Pastiche Mean?.

This reworking of Andy Warhol’s art, is a perfect example of a pastiche. Warhol was a well known American artist and he was a leading figure in visual art movement which was known as pop art. The pastiche image imitates the style of Warhol’s infamous pop art which began back in 1967. It changes his first print of Marilyn Monroe by replacing her face for Michael Jackson’s.

This example is not only a pastiche but it is also a parody. This is an example of a parody as well because it is has been reworked as Michael Jackson which is supposed to promote a comical effect towards the audience.

I believe this example from the website GraphJam can be a reworking of past anatomy of well known animals in the ocean. The first image is a drawing of a shark. The parts of the shark that are labeled are obviously not the correct parts, they have been switched to something funny. For example, the arrow pointing to where the sharks brain would be, says “murderous thoughts” which is funny because sharks are known for being vicious and have no predators. These examples of pastiches are also parodies because they are meant to be relatable and funny. The entire website is full of funny “memes” and parodies of charts, graphs, and well known images.

This work definitely questions the original anatomy of these animals. The drawing of the whale only has arrows pointing all over the body pointing to what would normally be labeled as blubber but now changed to “fat” everywhere. The drawing of the seahorse has a tiny saddle, and a “curly part” which is obviously not the real anatomy of a seahorse.

I would say this assignment best relates to the film theorist Richard Dyer who said, “The primary way to understand pastiche is as an imitation that announces itself as such and that involves combining elements from other sources.”. He further explained that a pastiche can be a type of work that imitates another work that had been previously produced. This description of pastiche can be illustrated in the work of the Monroe print by Warhol compared to the Jackson print. The creator of this pastiche imitated his style of art and created something similar yet entirely different.

I was able to connect this assignment to our class discussion from the movie Shrek. The movie showed many examples of parodies. We discussed a few including, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, The Gingerbread Man, The Three Blind Mice, and so many more. It was interesting to connect a childhood movie to learning about pastiches and parodies, and find such little details I had never noticed before.

From completing this assignment, I was able to learn more about the difference between a pastiche and a parody. I also learned how they can work together and separately to be effective in different ways. A pastiche can be complimentary, but with the addition of parody, it can often times become offensive.