Week 2 - Post-Modernism, Ai Weiwei and Banksy

1. Define Post-Modernism using 8-10 bullet points that include short quotes.

1. a period from about 1980 to the present

2. characterized by the emergence of the postindustrial information economy

3. implies a nation-state challenged by new world views: feminism, multiculturalism, environmentalism, etc

4. old scientific certainties called into question

5. the replacement of mechanical metaphors with cybernetic ones

6. rejects the modernist ideals of rationality, virility, artistic genius, and individualism, in favor of being anti-capitalist, contemptuous of traditional morality, and committed to radical egalitarianism

7. anti-Enlightenment positio  

8. associated with relativism

9. no grand narrative

10. social constructivism

2. Use a quote by Witcombe (2000) to define the Post-Modern artist.

The postmodern artist is "reflexive" in that he/she is self-aware and consciously involved in a process of thinking about him/herself and society in a deconstructive manner, "demasking" pretensions, becoming aware of his/her cultural self in history, and accelerating the process of self-consciousness.


3. Use the grid on pages 42 and 43 to summarize the list of the features of Post-Modernity.

• The breakdown of the distinction between culture and society.
• An emphasis on style at the expense of substance and content.
• The breakdown of a distinction between high culture (art) and popular culture.
  Confusions over time and space.
• A performance, not pure art.
• Mix different materials and cultures. Reflexive, objective and critical
• Reflection is indeed needed in the postmodern pluralist.

4. Use this summary to answer the next two questions.


5. Research Chinese artist Ai Weiwei's 'Han Dynasty Urn with Coca-Cola logo'(1994) in order to say what features of the work are Post-Modern.

'Han Dynasty Urn with Coca-Cola logo'(1994), Ai Weiwei


Ai Weiwei places the Coca Cola Label on an ancient Chinese artwork, a Han Dynasty urn. This juxtaposition creates a simple, visual image that communicates the concept of cultural collision--the replacement of old Confucian values by capitalism and consumerism in contemporary China. Ai Weiwei's vision of this is rather cynical. Consumerism and globalization replace ancient ideals and principles, and old relics become consumer commodities.  (Marshall, 2008)


Ai Weiwei dropping a Han Dynast Urn.


Dropping a Han dynasty urn in an act of performance art.


Shattering a Han-dynasty urn in 1955 or defacing another with the Coca-Cola logo in 1994, he remarked on the loss of China's cultural legacy by reenacting its destruction, leaving viewers aghast and implicating himself in the process. (Spalding, 2006)


Ai weiwei's works are Post-Modern beacuse they are reflexive, objective, critical, mixing different material and culture. It's a performance, not pure art. It's a language with serious messages behind.

6. Research British artist Banksy's street art, and analyze the following two works by the artist to discuss how each work can be defined at Post-Modern.(Use your list from point 6.)

'Flower Riot', Banksy

• Social and cultural pluralism, disunity, unclear bases for social/national/ ethnic unity
• Culture adapting to simulation
• Play, irony, challenge to official seriousness

Flower Riot is a political griffiti. 

There is something so inherently contradictory about angry protestors throwing flowers instead of bricks or Molotov cocktails at their opponents. Maybe the opponent is the government- they have riot police, we have flowers. Maybe its big business- they have zillions of advertising dollars, we have flowers. Maybe it's the corporate polluters- they have lobbyists, we have flowers. The question is: does the image mean are we powerless? Flowers are so ephemeral, so fragile. How could they possibly hurt anything?  Or are the flowers a symbol of the intangible power that comes from belief and hope and the certainty of truth?  Do they, like love, have the power to transform the enemy? (Carosella, 2011）


Los Angeles (2008), Banksy

• Social and cultural pluralism, disunity, unclear bases for social/national/ ethnic unity
• Culture adapting to simulation
• Play, irony, challenge to official seriousness
• Hybridity, recombinant culture, intertextuality

Reference:


ALVC recource book, p.42-43


Saugstad, A. (2001). Postmodernism: What is it, and What is Wrong With It? Retrieved 9 October, 2007 from: http://goinside.com/01/1/postmod.html


Witcombe, C. (2000). Modernism & Postmodernism. Retrieved 29 January, 2004 from
      http://witcombe.sbc.edu/modernism/modpostmod.html

http://theworldsbestever.com/2008/02/new_banksy_pieces_surface_in_l.php

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2009/03/11/how-china-conquered-the-art-world.html

Hartman, P. V. (1996). What is "Postmodernism"? Retrieved 1 August, 2011 from http://www.naciente.com/essay15.htm

Spalding, D. (2006, September 30). Ai Weiwei: Galerie Urs Melile, Artforum international, 45(1), 395.

Marshall, J. (2008).  Visible Thinking: Using Contemporary Art to Teach Conceptual Skills, Art Education, 61(2), 38-45.

Carosella, T. L. Retrieved 7 August, 2011 from http://arnica.csustan.edu/carosella/banksystreetart/street_art_by_banksy.htm