Speaking of appropriation. ..

Thomas Ruff has recently been working on a series of appropriated images as well.  Ruff selects images from pornographic websites and then prints the low-rez images at an extra large scale.  Due to the poor quality of the original images the resulting prints are soft and painterly, far removed from their original context.  By stripping the images of their detail, Ruff removes much of their erotic value.  He also points to a conflict between the personal nature of these images and the highly public space of the internet. . . 

-kimberly