From Print to Digital: Reappropriation of the Ready-Made Image in Works of Margit Sielska and Weronika Gęsicka

This article traces the connections between print and digital photomontage practices through the works of two women artists, Margit Sielska (1900–1980) and Weronika Gęsicka (1984–), addressing the way these lesser-known, non-Anglophone artists reveal a continuity of interests across time. Changes in technology have allowed the cut and paste technique of photomontage to evolve from the use of scissors and glue to the use of computer software. By reappropriating and manipulating the ready-made images of women and of stereotypical family life from printed and photographic materials, both artists challenge assumptions about a woman’s role in society while constructing new settings and realities for their subjects to occupy. In both instances, the combinatory process of montage serves to question and disrupt traditional and normative representations of women and domesticity. By drawing on the parallels between artworks that are made with different techniques but are derived from the shared creative process of appropriating and manipulating the ready-made image to create new, unexpected situations, the article reveals continuity between certain modernist practices and contemporary digital culture.