What Art Memes to Me: Memes and Art/Memes as Art?
An example of the typical meme format, combining historical paintings with dialogue, to lend humour to an otherwise quotidian scene. (Source: https://br.ifunny.co/picture/what-inspired-you-to-write-the-essay-francis-we-the-Mm2FO1Ep8)
Do not let the outward frivolity of memes fool you into not realising their innate potential to generate social knowledge in the territory they circulate. A ubiquitous form of popular culture, memes are digital objects—including but not limited to jokes, rumours, videos and websites—circulated from person to person via the internet. In his 1976 book The Selfish Gene, biologist Richard Dawkins derived the term “meme” from “gene” by applying evolutionary theory to cultural change. He used it to denote small cultural units of transmission that spread from person to person by copying or imitation. Memes globally started circulating first in “meme hubs”—online communities such as the news aggregator site Reddit, the imageboard website 4Chan, and the micro-blogging platform Tumblr, which continue to be the global archive and base of meme generation. The mass proliferation of memes first began in the late 2000s and had completely dominated the blogosphere and social media by the 2010s. As technologies and ways to interact with images evolved, so did the formal aspects of the meme format, moving away from primarily still images and text to variations like GIFs and short-form videos on platforms like Vine and eventually, with the proliferation of applications like TikTok and Instagram, to longer videos and Reels. The erstwhile memes, however, present an interesting case study. They can incite and inspire, problematise and be problematic in equal turn. Memes offer a mirror image of our volatile present as much as their avant-garde heritage, which can be connected to their innate subversive potential and their cultivation by the online subcultural community. Though this article focuses on the specific relationship between art and memes, it acknowledges that not all is playful when it concerns memes. These digital objects can stand in for alternative groups both in a negative as well as positive way—as new tools of solidarity for minorities and other marginalised people as well as tools of hate for the rest.
The artwork is David Teniers' (II) oil painting Three Smokers and a Drinker in a Tavern Interior (between 1650 and 1670). Although such scenes have often been described as warnings against moral vices and intoxication, the figures in this panel are jolly and suggest instead enjoyment of all things in moderation. The second image adds dialogue to similarly turn this painting of a historical social scene into a ‘relatable meme’ format.
Art and technology have always had a fascinating relationship, particularly when one considers how the introduction of certain technological tools changes the way we use images. What is common between the artistic act and the mass internet is connection and communication. This process is also an attempt to create styles, languages and attitudes that could provide an alternative to the mainstream. In this heterogeneous process, the origin of the image is irrelevant since the function of that image is only as a tool of communication. Memes are thus an example of the manifestation of that range of attitudes and aesthetics in the contemporary moment. They have become the template for telling the stories of our times.
Two memes that follow the established text-image format that was prevalent in the 2010s and later. Here, caricatures or painterly representations of Mughal rulers, such as Aurangzeb, Jahangir and Akbar are used as conduits for a joke unrelated to them. Images courtesy of the "meme collective" Mad Mughal Memes on Instagram.
Seven strangers, bonded by their shared love for Mughal history and a wacky sense of humour, manage the meme collective Mad Mughal Memes. This collective best illustrates the coming together of memes and art in an Indian context. According to Pritish (who goes by the screen name Zauq), an admin member of Mad Mughal Memes, “the aim of this page can be described as infotainment—making people laugh and learn at the same time.” This meme page uses the Mughal template of memes, ranging from Mughal portraits to popular movie scenes, with the objective of both representing its history as well as presenting short consumable points. Their followers include William Dalrymple, Rana Safvi and Swapna Liddle, among others. But it is not just jokes and revelries for these groups. As Zauq remarks, the team is attacked online for any post that remotely deals with current politics, particularly if any of their memes “even seem like an attack on Narendra Modi or Amit Shah.”
A panel and text-based meme from Mad Mughal Memes, that juxtaposes actors' roles in the popular 2008 film Jodhaa-Akbar with previous roles that they did, with the text referencing a joke about a change in the space-time continuum by a time traveller, which causes a shift in the timeline.
A screenshot of the Mad Mughal Memes Instagram page.
Memes, or what they accomplish, have arguably been practised for centuries. With emerging technologies, their meaning has evolved. They now exist as ubiquitous digital objects, repurposed to deliver a cultural, social or political expression, primarily through humour. In their movement through specific geographies, memes generate social knowledge not only in the direct cultural references they imbibe and depict, but also in the very social environments they represent. As the internet became accessible to more people, there was a proliferation of diversity and subcultures that existed in these online spaces. The niche interests of different people flourished as communities developed around those passionate about different things, with different styles and attitudes. This also has an impact on aesthetics in a broader sense. Portable politics, consumable ideologies and ambivalent stances thus become the signature features of the groups that create and consume memes. One of the many layers of these puerile, humorous objects is the location of subversion and resistance. However, their exact nature greatly relies on the users channelling those memes. Memes exist in a world of contradictions, a world espousing both control and freedom, with both the advantages and disadvantages afforded by their malleable form.
Memes often re-appropriate excerpts from paintings; such as this Mad Mughal Memes image taking an excerpt from a Mughal painting, likely depicting scenes of a scribe, or a cook along with another figure chopping vegetables, and turns the scene into a jibe on friends in a classroom. The relatability arguably transforms these excerpted paintings into movable objects that operate in a realm of their own within the digital sphere.
To learn more about meme cultures, read Sagorika Singha’s essay on the figure of Hero Alom as a meme icon that transcends borders, Anisha Baid’s piece on Hito Steyerl’s “In Defence of the Poor Image” (2009), and Veeranganakumari Solanki’s curated album of work done by The Packet.
