What is postmodernism? Though the term is hard to define as even the idea itself accepts contradictions, however my thought process and themes are generally looking at how postmodern thinking has impacted the art world and visual culture we see today.

Since postmodernism is seen as ‘after’ modernism, it is helpful to understand what modernism is in terms of art or at least how I view it.  Modernism is characterized by a deliberate rejection of the styles of the past; emphasizing instead innovation and experimentation in forms, materials and techniques in order to create artworks that better reflected modern society.  Modernist art rejected history and conservative values, rejected ornament, and strived for innovation and experimentation, a utopian view of civilization and a belief in progress.  Though there was many movements during this period, notably from around Realism/Romanticism such as, Caspar David Friedrich’s, Wanderer above the Sea Fog, to loosely culminating in abstract art.  It cannot be clearly marked as one could say Postmodern thinking/art could be classified as cyclical thus a rejection of the what formed that current periods popular art.  It is easier to understand if time is split into a succession of ism’s as society can quantify the idea, especially in this day of techno capitalism.

For my upcoming solo exhibition at the Print House Gallery, I have revisited ideas that have always underlined and weaved itself in my work, notably that of the Situationists and Superstudio.  I would take those ideas such as unitary urbanism, psycho-geographie and drifting, whilst applying it to present day conditions or spaces and commenting on our socio-political/cultural issues that have impacted our present lives.  Though it may seem contradictory the work produced as being a critique of the postmodern condition yet the visual aesthetic and use of popular spaces such as Rio Cinema, very present in the current visual milieu.  In a sense it became difficult to try not to reference anything from the past but to create, or at least try to build from scratch using 3d modelling software.

The search for something unique, to continuously develop my practice lead to the question of what can be new or even authentic in this postmodern age.  The era of visual art laced with amphetamine and coated with truffle sprinkles so that it can be easily consumed with a square image, 860kb and #’ed till the cows come home.  As Walter Benjamin reviews the development of the means of the mechanical reproduction of art, he discusses the concept of ‘authenticity’, of being in accordance with fact, noting that “even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking one element: its presence in time and space, it’s unique existence at the place where it happens to be.  The action of mechanical reproduction diminishes the original artwork by changing the cultural context (original vs. copy); thus, the aura, the unique aesthetic authority, of an artwork is absent from the mechanically produced copy.

The search for that aura was stoked and defined by looking into what was unique to my life or story and where that came from.  This lead to me looking into my cultural origins based in the chinese community of Liverpool.  A self initiated research trip has begun to the northern scouse lands, or as some would brand me as a wool.

The search/research to be continued…


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