Postmodernism as Artistic Movement - Essay Example

– I had to deal with a family emergency today which put me significantly behind schedule. I tried to write to you, but am unsure if the message went through. The completed order is available below, but I would greatly appreciate it if you could extend the original deadline so I am not penalized for the delay. Student name Instructor name Course name Date Postmodernism As an artistic movement, postmodernism has moved artistic expression away from the two-dimensional painting that appeals only to the eye in favor of more interactive pieces designed to engage the audience on a variety of levels at once. These concepts are largely based on the “politics of representation.” This refers to the concept that there is a difference between the form of the image and the content of the image or the visual and the sublime. The sublime element is without definite form and is indefinable thus it cannot be given a specific visual form. However, the visual form must suggest some element of the sublime. This is because every visible form is capable of suggesting some deeper meaning to different audiences at varying levels regardless of the original intentions of the artist. This is because art is understood to exist as a constant interaction between the artist and the viewer, between what the artist created and how the viewer interprets this creation based on individual experience, understanding and context. The postmodern movement, with its emphasis on revealing the sublime, brought these ideas forward. “The political and the aesthetic are inseparable, simultaneously present, faces of the postmodern problematic” (Burgin, 1982). These ideas can be discovered by examining the philosophy behind the movement and applying them to the artwork of a contemporary artist such as Jenny Holzer. Artists today attempt to convey a sense of the incommunicable in their work without depending on the traditional symbols and treatments of realist art. Philosopher Jean-Francois Lyotard wrote that the “only definition” of realism is that “it intends to avoid the question of reality implicated in that art” (1984). The problem with realism, according to Lyotard, is that the artist tends to “pursue successful careers in mass conformism by communicating by means of the ‘correct rules,’ the endemic desire for reality with objects and situations capable of gratifying it” (Lyotard, 1984: 75). This is compared with the expressions of the avant-garde artists, in which experimental innovations are applied to both technique and structure. This is done as a means of trying “to make visible that there is something which can be conceived and which can neither be seen nor made visible” (Lyotard, 1984: 78). This something, also called the sublime, can be defined as a quality of transcendent greatness “with which nothing else can be compared and which is beyond all possibility of calculation, measurement or imitation” (Wikipedia, 2006). When the sublime is captured within a given work, it can strategically inspire its audience’s imagination in a specific direction as a result of the artist’s decisions regarding which elements will remain visible or understandable. The significance of today’s art is in the way in which the artwork focuses attention on the uncertainty of meaning discovered in the work. In the end, the audience must realize that no resolution makes itself apparent so any resolution discovered is through the process of the viewer’s own interpretation. The division between the artistic practice of attempting to represent ‘reality’ versus one in which conventional approaches are challenged is central to a definition of postmodernism. Lyotard argued that a “postmodern artist or writer is in the position of a philosopher: the text he writes, the work he produces are not in principle governed by pre-established rules, and they cannot be judged according to a determining judgment, by applying familiar categories to the text or to the work. The rules and categories are what the work of art itself is looking for” (Lyotard, 1984, p. 81). Lyotard’s theory is an idealistic conception of artistic production because it implies that the avant-garde artist can produce an ‘innocent’ text. However, his ideas are helpful in attempting to understand what contemporary artists are trying to accomplish. Essentially, Lyotard is suggesting that the old methods of expression replicate established rules rather than challenging audiences assumptions while postmodern artists seek to spark enlightenment through an encounter with the sublime. These ideas are expressed in the work of installation artists such as Jenny Holzer who has moved to readjust various symbolisms to help define the sublime. Rather than presenting images as truth, Holzer presents words as truth. She does this by presenting culturally familiar slogans in a streaming media that removes them from the familiar in her display series Truisms (Kukje Gallery, 2005). Holzer displays these running texts in the public sphere, choosing locations that are usually occupied by commercial advertising. In doing so, she challenges the conventional idea that art should be preserved within designated enclosed spaces and forces her work into the public eye. Holzer visually challenges her audience to ‘hear’ culturally accepted sayings that are casually thrown about, but largely ignored. In doing this, she attempts to force us to really think about what these slogans are saying. This introduces one level of the sublime into the public realm. However, her message can be taken a level or two deeper when it is realized that not all of the slogans she uses are necessarily considered a cliché. To shake up her audience, Holzer sometimes throws in her own personal statements of wisdom such as “Extreme self-consciousness leads to perversity” (“Jenny Holzer”, n.d.). By including these ideas, Holzer introduces the idea that while we may all share a common cultural background, we do not share the same assumptions regarding the topics Holzer addresses. First challenging the notion that common phrases in the public sphere are meaningless sound and that the clichés of childhood have ceased to carry wisdom, Holzer introduces the realization that we are not all culturally identical and suggests wisdom can be found in the words of others. In sending this message, though, the only words ever actually viewed by the audience are the slogans themselves. Holzer presents her ideas in as minimalist a form as possible providing only slight changes in ‘voice’ through different colors or fonts based on the limited range of the electronic board. For Holzer, it was when she took her Truism series out of the context of the lengthy text, image and interior spaces and into the streets in bold, clear, concise statements that she found fame. “The ‘Truism’ dramatized a depersonalized and amoral information landscape throughout juxtapositions. Holzer has since produced a variety of texts with points of view ranging from inflammatory manifesto to feminist or parental concern to bleak resignation. In all of her work she links ideological statements with the forms and meanings of architecture” (Stuart Collection, 1992). Her entire series is about trying to defamiliarize reality from within accepted symbolic systems. In the image below, the Guggenheim Museum takes on a special tri-color LED displays in 1990 to display Holzer’s slogans in a rare interior exhibit that demonstrates how the installation is applied to a more public space. http://www.guggenheimcollection.org/site/artist_work_md_65_1s.html Representation, whether expressed in words or images, is therefore demonstrated to be neither a neutral nor an innocent activity, but instead an activity having potentially profound effects on everyday lives. Although some might suggest that postmodern art relies on a non-definition of societal symbols and forms to provide the ultimate expression of the sublime, the reality is that this is not possible. In truth, there are no forms that have not attached to themselves specific societal meanings, although these may change from one culture to another, thus simply introducing different meaning, not necessarily an absence of meaning. Current examples within the art world, particularly illustrated through the installation piece because of its ability to shock audiences and force engagement on a variety of levels, demonstrate how artists have been working to redefine some of these more commonly understood symbols by taking advantage of the sublime to influence contemporary thought. This is an inexact science because of the indeterminate nature of the message contained in the sublime. However, by challenging our ideas of specific images, these art forms become powerful tools in reshaping political and/or societal views and blurring the boundaries of what we thought we knew. Works Cited Burgin, Victor. Thinking Photographically. New Jersey: Humanities Press Intl, (March, 1982). Guggenheim Museum. “Untitled.” July 27, 2009 “Jenny Holzer”. Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art. (2006). Kukje Gallery. “Jenny Holzer.” DesignBoom. (January 23, 2005). July 27, 2009 Lyotard, Jean-Francois. The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. Trans. Geoff. University of Minnesota Press, 1984. Stuart Collection. “Jenny Holzer.” San Diego, CA: (1992). July 27, 2009 Wikipedia contributors. Sublime (philosophy). Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. (2006). July 27, 2009 Read More