Appropriating Conditions by Bas Medik is a dialogue of appropriation and contemporary art. Combining theoretical writing with photographs, notes, letters, and diagrams, Bas Medik transforms the discussion into a quasi-manifesto of art making. He ends his manifesto with a section on “Editing,” listing all the corrections to be made in the book Finnegan’s Wake.
From the text: “Artists who work by appropriating conditions challenge implicit notions of how to approach and read art. Their practice is not about how to make or construct works, but about how to generally see, define, or recognize works as works. A work that has elements that can be described as appropriating conditions refuses to be approached through criteria such as gesture, symbolism, skill, or representation. Instead it leans heavily on what you don’t see; the contexts that the elements of the work come from and are placed in.”