Week Three

WHAT IS POST-MODERNISM?

This week, our aim was to read and summarise a reading by Charles Jencks, What is Post-Modernism? It was first given as a paper at a conference in America and Germany in 1985, but the version we are reading is a revised, 1996 edition. 

"Many postmodern paintings, while engaging traditional styles of realism, simultaneously draw attention to their own artifice, to the fact that 'realism' is not real. For a good example, look at the painting on the cover of this book: a 1983 oil on canvas by Carlo Maria Mariani called La Mano Ubbidisce all'Intelleto (The Hand Obeys the Understanding). The figures look quite 'realistic', reminding us of classical Romans with their toga-like drapings and laurel-leaf crowns. But the high seriousness of the subject matter is broken when we notice that the figures are painting each other. This type of humorous playfulness disgusted Modernists, who took very seriously the responsibility of art and genius to elevate culture"
-How Postmodernism Serves (My) Faith: Questioning Truth in Language, Philosophy and Art. Crystal L Downing. (pg 86)  

After my third reading of the text, I wrote up what I believed to be the main points of the reading

• Post-modernism chooses us
• Post-modernism is transcendence 
• Post-modernism is not Anti-modernism
• Post-modernism rejects the totalising arguments of modernism
• Post-modernism is an overlap of co-existing world views 
• Post-modernism has gone beyond the inadequate world view of modernism, without specifying exactly where it is going 

Fragmentation
In comparison to Modernism, post-modernism is a lot more complex, with a lot more ideas overlapping each other.

Charles Jenks 'Evolutionary Tree' is a visual representation of the transition from Modernism to post-modernism. The seemingly straight forward ideas of Modernism become complicated.

Social Relativity
Post-modernism introduced the idea of how we stand relative to others, which complicated the idea of equality.

Jackie Nickerson (born 1960) took photographs of farm workers in South Africa, Malawi and Mozambique, making comparisons between them and considering the relation between her as the photographer, and them.  

Rhetoric
Post-modernism undermined the Modernist idea of 'truth' and the 'total work of art' by making use of the Rhetoric. Making art and design that made people think, to provoke thought and response. This way, the work is not complete until it is perceived by the viewer, and even then it is subjective. This introduction of the 'death of the author' idea is one that undermines the ideas of Modernism completely.

Jenny Holzer (born 1950) creates statements that can be perceived as statements on a number of different issues, a number of different ways. It is precarious, going against the completeness and security of Modernism.

The Incomplete
Also undermining the Modernist ideas of 'the total work of art' is the post-modern idea of incomplete design and art. Post-modernists acknowledge the idea of Whakamarama.

This instalment by Anthony Gormley is incomplete until the audience participates with it, but even then it has a sense of being incomplete. To me, this work shows the idea of Whakamarama, the acknowledgment that no one can have complete knowledge of something, or someone elses position. 

Information
In comparison to the Modernist idea of technology forever advancing society, post-modernists embrace the idea of information, ideas branching off each other, limitlessly. The intangible concept of information is ever changing and growing, but works hand in hand with technology. This is an example of how post-modernism cannot exist without Modernism, as they inform each other.

Barett Lyons visual interpretation of the internet (2010).

Represent
Modernists were obsess with the idea that an objects form should follow its function. Post-modernism starts to create objects that are representative of other things and ideas beyond itself.

The Michael Graves company created some design that was representative of other things, but it is still clear how they are very much informed by modernist design, with their simplicity and geometric forms. 

I also found this interesting when researching Michael Groves. This kettle has many complaints lodged against it as people interpreted it as a representation of Hitler. This could be a reflection of, not only people beginning to make representative art and design, but also that people are starting to look for it and expect it.

End of History
In post-modernism, there may be a sense that Western Capitalism has won, and that there is no more progress to be made.

Historicism and Citation
Where Modernism wanted to disconnect itself from history, post-modernism takes old things, which are iconic or nostalgic, and makes them new. It acknowledges the past without re-creating it.

When asked to design an advertisement for Swatch Watch in the 1980s, Paula Scher based her design off an iconic 1930s Swiss tourism poster. 

Figuration
In contrast to the abstraction of Modernism, which was about reducing things to their most refined geometric shapes and colours. Post-modernism has another take on this - representing things in the form of figures, which is still similar to abstraction.

The Aashi Beer Hall designed by Phillipe Starck, can be seen to represent a flowing, golden flame, contrasting with the solid, black building below it. The building to the left, can be seen to represent a golden pint of beer with foam on the top. This figuration is similar to abstraction, but it is more complex and open to interpretation. 

Regionalism/ Specifity
Undermining the Modernist ideas of Internationalism and Universality, post-modernism creates art and design that comments on or is specific to a certain place or government, acknowledging the differences between people and places which Modernism tried to ignore.

This design by Olivero Toscani (1993), is post-modern, as it comments on specific race issues within the UK, acknowledging differences between places and perceptions. 

Disintegration
Post-modernism looks to break down the ideas of Modernism. It breaks up the pieces of Modernism, but not the whole. Where Modernism was calm and collected, post-modernism had a sense of hanging on the edge, uncertainty.

Gordon Matta - Clark Splitting. Making the splitting of a house into art, embracing destruction and separation.

Wordiness

Where Modernism could be compared to Theology, with its religious-like pursuit of an idealised, Utopian future, post-modernism could be compared to Worldliness. Worldliness is defined as of or relating to this world, as contrasted with heaven or spiritual life. Post-modernism is about right here, right now, in this world, with an uncertain future. 


After looking in-depth at these segments of post-modernism, I re-read the reading and found that Jencks had discussed these ideas in his writing. I then re-wrote my main points as I could understand the reading more. 

• It is important to define the age that we are in so that we can understand ourselves
• Modernism cannot be un-done as it accumulates 
• Post-modernism is less confident in itself than modernism
• Post-modernism chooses us, as it is a natural response to Modernism 
• Post-modernism is simultaneously the continuation of Modernity and its transcendence 
• Post-modernism could not have occurred without Modernism
• Post-modernism rejects the totalising arguments of modernism
• Post-modernism is an overlap of co-existing world views 
• Post-modernism has gone beyond the inadequate world view of modernism, without specifying exactly where it is going