Project Detail

Mariam Jafri vs. Maryam Jafri

Synopsis

The starting point for this video piece is an image of artist Maryam Jafri's sculpture 'Anxiety', that has been turned into a stock photo for licensing on a major photographic agency's website without the artist's prior knowledge or permission.
A voiceover traces the work’s trajectory from a readymade sculpture for sale at an art fair to a stock photo for licensing online and finally, to a video commissioned by a Kunstahalle, a space meant to guarantee the autonomy of art. The work reflects upon the role of originality, artist labour and copyright in our culture of sampling and remixing.
Official Selection International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) 2020 -Bright Future

Details

Year: 2020
Type of project: Shorts
Running time: 12 min
Director: Maryam Jafri
Artist's Note: The video piece title references the caption accompanying the photograph which misspells my name. The title also references an earlier work I made in 2012, called GETTY VS GHANA which examined the unauthorized copyrighting of African independence day photographs by multinational stock photo agencies, including Getty Images and Corbis.