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HARDCORE POSTMODERNISM
Many people have tried to define what postmodernism
is. They have tried to characterized it by comparing it with modernism, by
linking it with society, politics, art (l'art pour l'art and stuff), economics
or just culture grosso modo.
After reading lots of stuff about this
subject from the perspective of philosophy, literature and aesthetics
(Benjamin, Marcuse, Adorno & Horkheimer, Eco, Jauss, Huyssen and those
guys) I've come to some sort of idea. Rather than try to explain it with words,
I'll risk to stablish my point by just showing my collection.
You see, when I picked this particular
images, I thought that they must reflect a contradictory series of emotions and
knowledge, all linked by desperation, cynicism, the absurd and a teeny tiny
drop of hope in the future: for example, the masks which most of people think are
necessary to survive in society, the contemplation of pain in other people and
the silence about it; the pleasure in cruelty combined with the sensitivity of
the little details, the hi-tech and the crescent loneliness, the questionable
role of humans in the onthologycal category of existence... you know what I
mean? All the things that surround us, the very world we live in and which we
need ('cause it's a need, not just a wish) to express, to pervert, to twist, to
reinvent by our own means.
You'll find pieces like these which will illustrate (I hope) my point:
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| Flooded subway - Murder by etwoo |
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| Oh me... 2 by Evelyn182 |
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| Payne by 4degrees |
Hey! WATCH IT! Or I'll abstract you!
Personally, I
admit that I couldn't be able of expressing something just through shapes,
shades and colors, that's why I just adore how these authors may say so many
things without telling a story necessarily.
I'm not very
sure, but my guess would be that abstract art is not as popular as concrete
(sorry if this sounds weird, I don't know if that is the actual opposite:S)
art, where there are people, landscapes or tangible situations from which one
may draw a speciffic story and hold on to it. Of course, that's a very attractive
and fun thing to do, but most of the times, it's also the easiest thing to do.
With the abstract, I think, something else is required.
Now, it comes to
my memories T. W. Adorno's aesthetic proposal about modern art (specifically,
the avant-garde) in his AESTHETIC THEORY and, in an a more shallow way, in the
INDUSTRIAL CULTURE (written with Horkheimer). If you have read it, you'll
remember that his idea of real and actual art (in opposition to the
massification of cultural products) is focused on a shocking art, a type of art
that doesn't please the viewer but rather shakes him and force him to think and to
reflect about the meaning. For him, a type of art meant to be contemplated and/or to
be enjoyed is a banal art, because it does the Evil Industry's work of numbing
regular people up. Of course, this was the opinion of a very bitter man who was
horrified by seeing the vertiginous, bright and "democratic" american
way of life of the 20's, after being exiliated from Germany at the WWI.
Fortunately,
Hans Robert Jauss came along for save the day. In his KLEINE APOLOGIE DES
ÄSTHETISCHEN ERFAHRUNG he
claims that art doesn't have to be shocking or unpleaseant to make people
think. If you enjoy some piece of art (paint, music, literature, etc.) you also
may reflect about its meaning and you can incorporate it to enrich you personal
life. There's a tendency of numbing people in the cultural industry, there's no
doubt about it -Jauss admits- but Adorno seems to forget that people are not
just a passive receptacle of information, even the less instructed individual
filters data and does whatever the hell he wants with it. And that's the
foundation of the Reception Theory.
So, being said
that, my motives to collect these and other pieces are the need of reflecting
about them (and to feel because of them) while I look at them, whether they
please me or confuse me or even displease me. I hope that, with this I make
justice to the authors, to whom I pay my respects and admiration for their
amazing work.
Where you may see various examples like:
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| Fractal 1000 by turon-marcano |
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| Electro city by Clarissant |
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| To the light by *kir-tat |
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Como verán en cada texto, tengo mucha influencia de los Estudios Culturales, lo cual tal vez no coincida con los estudios de la Teoría del Arte en forma (¿quién sabe? No conozco en realidad nada al respecto). Finalmente, sólo es mi impresión. Pues, como sea, espero que también disfruten las imágenes compartidas en cada galería y, con suerte, les provoquen sacar sus propias conclusiones.
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