In contemporary art, it is easy to work with someone else’s material legally or illegally thanks to the wide digital networks, but the creative process remains an individual quest. The starting point for this thesis was to study how appropriation is applied in contemporary art and how art history has affected the ways in which artists take inspiration and material from others. By examining different theories, opinions and example cases, the concept and current state of art appropriation was researched. Ideas about artistic authenticity were studied and the current copyright laws were shortly presented in the thesis. Postproduction art was analyzed in theory and defined in different practical cases where new creative work was made from existing artistic material. Based on the research, clearer definitions were made, and new emerging creative areas were mapped more in-depth. Working with other people’s material creates new possibilities for individual expression and experimentation as well as social commentary, but it will nevertheless remain in a moral and legislative sense a grey area when it comes to ownership. The thesis includes also a report about Placeholders, a video installation with mural artwork and mixed media paintings, that was made for the Fine Art study path’s degree show Atomic Jungle. The exhibition was planned for Galleria Himmelblau but was implemented virtually on the degree show website due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The artwork was based on thoughts about authenticity, collage identity and outside influence affecting our individuality.