Much to my surprise, Postmodernism has played a great part for various artists who engaged with mediated performances. However, postmodern art has always been considered a subject of endless debate, considering the form has always been questioned about its true purpose in art as Paul Fry describes postmodernism as, ‘without doubt one of the most murky concepts to which we’ve been exposed in the past twenty or thirty years.’ (2014).
Postmodernism is of course derived from Modernism. Modernism began as a philosophical movement in the late 19th and 20th century, and was often defined as an industrial evolution. Modernism allowed our society to ideologically be reborn after the First World War (Westerside, 2014). Artistically, Modernism is reckoned to be what Harold Rosenburg calls ‘the tradition of the new,’ because at the time it was ‘experimental, formally complex (…) and tends to associate notions of the artist’s freedom from realism, materialism, traditional genre and form with notions of cultural apocalypse and disaster. (Childs, 2008, 1-2). However, Postmodernism in art is ‘an eclectic return to the possibilities thrown up by a return to the historical forms declared obsolete by modernism.’ (Westerside, 2014). One of the possibilities include using older forms and placing them in a refined context.
The video above is an example of said possibility. Gob Squad’s Kitchen (You’ve Never Had It So Good) encapsulates on the ideologies of 1965, ‘Pop, subculture, superstars, feminism, drugs, bright lights, and sex are about to rock the world like never before.’ (Gob Squad, 2014). Gob Squad’s Kitchen is restaged and live recorded, as well as a reconstruction of a number of films created by Andy Warhol: Kitchen, Eat, Sleep, and Screen Test. This reconstruction of Andy Warhol’s works, is Gob Squad’s re-telling of certain historical contexts in a postmodernist outlook by performing an occurring event based on a previous period.
However, Postmodernism is not only limited to performance art, this form can also be stretched to the likes of architecture. For instance, mock Tudor is exemplified as a postmodern structure, as buildings reimagined by an architect despite the lack of historical context is a common theme within Postmodernism. Music is another example where postmodernism can exist.
This video illustrated composer John Cage’s theory on sounds and music. Cage borrows the concept of composition, and “composed” a silent composition lasting 4 minutes and 33 seconds. During this piece, Cage cleverly allows the audience to sense the sounds within them, such as coughing, breathing and sniffing. So the performance is entirely focused on the audience rather than the composer. This allows the audience to neglect their knowledge of a typical composition comprised of music, and would come to expect their place as the true sound makers of the performance.
Works Cited:
Cage, John (1952) 4’33” [online video] Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gN2zcLBr_VM [Accessed 01 December 2014].
Childs, Peter (2008) Modernism. 2nd edition. London: Routledge.
Gob Squad (2014) ‘Gob Squad’s Kitchen (You’ve Never Had It So Good)’ [online] gobsquad.com Available from http://www.gobsquad.com/projects/gob-squads-kitchen-youve-never-had-it-so-good [Accessed 01 December 2014].
Westerside, Andrew (2014) Postmodernity, mediatised and global cultures. [lecture] Current Issues in Drama, Theatre and Performance DRA9020M-1415, University of Lincoln, 1 October.