Each student receives a selected object—ranging from artworks and artefacts to texts and ephemera—chosen by tutors Andrew Bracey and Steve Klee. These form a large-scale, three-dimensional still life in the studio, acting as both visual anchor and conceptual springboard. Students respond through drawing, research, and rhizomic mapping, culminating in new artworks and texts. These are exhibited alongside the original objects and rhizome diagrams in a curated group show. The process introduces students to exhibition-making, the ethics and aesthetics of appropriation, and the role of the artist as both maker and curator.

This project draws on the rich history of appropriation art, where artists reuse existing images, objects, or ideas to create new meanings. From Marcel Duchamp’s readymades to postmodern strategies by Sherrie Levine and Barbara Kruger, appropriation challenges ideas of originality, authorship, and value. Artists often use the work of others to amplify or extend their own. The project also reflects the evolving role of the artist-as-curator, who blurs the line between making and exhibiting.