The Greatest Lie You Ever Heard

[Carnage]

He went missing for half an hour and came back to tell us that he'd met Jacob Bannon from Converge, and that they had, yes "just chilled out with a few beers and had a good laugh." Bannon is straight-edge.

I did a search for Converge to see if there'd be anywhere appropriate to put the following story, and, yeah, turns out right here is the appropriate place! A French model has stated that she is the actual Jane Doe, contrary to Jacob Bannon being on record as saying his artwork wasn't based on any original image:
https://www.facebook.com/audreymarnay/posts/304754048121761

From their Facebook page:

Just to be clear: This is definitely one of the sources for the original stencil/mixed media piece for the "Jane Doe" album. Most of my work always been collaged cut/paste based (and still is). Hundreds of images were xeroxed and repainted/inked in a loose style to create the release artwork. This process is similar to everyone from Shepard Fairey to Francis Bacon. Over time my work has evolved into something more much more refined, but the roots will always be in this style. I wonder if folks will still insist that it is actually from the cover of Slayer's "Reign In Blood"?

The original goal was to create ghost-like forms that embodied the concept of "Jane Doe". In recreation identifiers are removed from physical forms, making all humans become relatable and stoic. We see what we want to see in them, and often times, it's a reflection back onto our own life experiences, etc.

Thank you.

-J.

Translation: I got caught but I'm calling it art so it's OK.

From the comments:

It is/was a recreation and proven at the time of creation. We hold the trademark on it because of this...

...My goal as an artist is to be inspired, then create work in terms of character and visual story telling that tells a new story. I feel that all visuals do this to a degree. There will always be remnants of influence in all work, but it's narrative and medium is entirely different...

...it was a full spray/ink piece in its final form. It was far enough from source material that it was now it's own fully formed artwork.

The fact that comments are now closed and there are only positive comments left up is telling.

[StoutAndAle]

Translation: I got caught but I'm calling it art so it's OK.

The fact that comments are now closed and there are only positive comments left up is telling.

Comparing himself to Francis Bacon after getting caught is some baller move though.

Christ.

[ochoill]

Given his work is known as stencil/collage style stuff from this era it's hardly a problem that an image got cut up and included though.  I would be inclined to believe he didn't know that was the specific image until it has cropped up again now, if he was cutting scraps for it.  There's all mention of him plagiarising it but that's hardly the case givem how it was made.

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

I don't think plagiarism is the right term here. It's collage, grand, that's what it is. It's more about him being on record as saying that it was based on no original model, which would kind of imply that he created the girl's face, the central part of the artwork, to some greater extent than just putting a filter on a scan of a photo, leaving it 100% recognizable in a side-by-side, more comparatively recognizable than, say, the stencil of Che is to the man. Wouldn't have created the same mystique, or fit quite so well with the "Jane Doe" thing, if people knew she'd been cut out of a glossy magazine and so was definitely more or less easily findable. Pretty amazing it took 20 years though; in today's information flow world, that's as close to getting away with it as he could have hoped for!

[ochoill]

I don't think plagiarism is the right term here. It's collage, grand, that's what it is. It's more about him being on record as saying that it was based on no original model, which would kind of imply that he created the girl's face, the central part of the artwork, to some greater extent than just putting a filter on a scan of a photo, leaving it 100% recognizable in a side-by-side, more comparatively recognizable than, say, the stencil of Che is to the man. Wouldn't have created the same mystique, or fit quite so well with the "Jane Doe" thing, if people knew she'd been cut out of a glossy magazine and so was definitely more or less easily findable. Pretty amazing it took 20 years though; in today's information flow world, that's as close to getting away with it as he could have hoped for!

No absolutely, and I don't mean ye saying its plagiarism too - just a general sentiment on a few comments online that would no doubt snowball had he said nothing at all.  The fact he's on record saying the art is completely original is pretty bad, but what kind of originality is expected of a collage?  I agree with you that a bit more than what is clearly a phtocopy of her face would be "original" but maybe he didn't think so - which speaks to how he sees a fashion magazine's photography, one person's art, as a disposable element for his own transformation.  Maybe.  Plenty of facets to the discussion on this but I'm mostly in agreement with you here on how he told the idea as his own for decades, but also consider most forms of collage fair use.

[Carnage]

No problem with him using the image in a collage (not sure that the photographer/publisher would feel the same though), more that he's stated it was his own thing for 20 years.

[kiehozero]

He went missing for half an hour and came back to tell us that he'd met Jacob Bannon from Converge, and that they had, yes "just chilled out with a few beers and had a good laugh." Bannon is straight-edge.

I did a search for Converge to see if there'd be anywhere appropriate to put the following story, and, yeah, turns out right here is the appropriate place! A French model has stated that she is the actual Jane Doe, contrary to Jacob Bannon being on record as saying his artwork wasn't based on any original image:
https://www.facebook.com/audreymarnay/posts/304754048121761

From their Facebook page:

Just to be clear: This is definitely one of the sources for the original stencil/mixed media piece for the "Jane Doe" album. Most of my work always been collaged cut/paste based (and still is). Hundreds of images were xeroxed and repainted/inked in a loose style to create the release artwork. This process is similar to everyone from Shepard Fairey to Francis Bacon. Over time my work has evolved into something more much more refined, but the roots will always be in this style. I wonder if folks will still insist that it is actually from the cover of Slayer's "Reign In Blood"?

The original goal was to create ghost-like forms that embodied the concept of "Jane Doe". In recreation identifiers are removed from physical forms, making all humans become relatable and stoic. We see what we want to see in them, and often times, it's a reflection back onto our own life experiences, etc.

Thank you.

-J.

Translation: I got caught but I'm calling it art so it's OK.

From the comments:

It is/was a recreation and proven at the time of creation. We hold the trademark on it because of this...

...My goal as an artist is to be inspired, then create work in terms of character and visual story telling that tells a new story. I feel that all visuals do this to a degree. There will always be remnants of influence in all work, but it's narrative and medium is entirely different...

...it was a full spray/ink piece in its final form. It was far enough from source material that it was now it's own fully formed artwork.

The fact that comments are now closed and there are only positive comments left up is telling.

My favourite bit is " In recreation identifiers are removed from physical forms, making all humans become relatable and stoic." Funny that the aim is to make the image anonymous and yet it's still almost identical to the original.