Hasta La Ideas

So apparently the internet gets all enraged when singer Rihanna and her director copies David LaChappelle, Beyonce and Co. borrows liberally from photographers Pieter Hugo and Ed Kashi, or when Beck, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Keith Schofield repurpose strange images found on the internet, but when Lady Gaga does the same, she’s applauded or the whole thing is just ignored. Maybe it’s because she describes herself as an artist with dreams of an exhibition at the Louvre? Whatever the case, the singer’s latest music video, You and I was released last week and it’s being viewed as either a) an homage to Marina Abramović, b) a slight copy of Abramović’s work, particularly her video piece, The Great Wall Walk wherein the artist walk toward one another across a wide stretch of China’s Great Wall (it’s sort of the same basic plot in Gaga’s clip), or c) the vast majority of people don’t know who Abramović is, so it doesn’t matter, or it’s good that the singer, who is a well-established Abramović fan, is trying to at least raise partial awareness of another person’s work (without every really doing that). To get extra, fine-tooth-comb picky, we recommend hitting up Flavorwire, who have put together this piece on “Lady Gaga’s Most Blantant Contemporary Art Rip-Offs,” which is just as it sounds, comparing her previous music videos to the art that, at times, seems that “inspired by” might not be the most accurate phrase, when “copied directly” would perhaps work better.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.