bethany.pearce: WEEK 2 Post-Modernism, Ai Weiwei and Banksy

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

One of the very basic ideas of Post-Modernism is rejection of arbitrary power structures. Different people are sensitive to different kinds of power structures - Larry Wall
"There are no hard distinctions between what is real and what is unreal, nor between what is true and what is false. A thing is not necessarily either true or false; it can be both true and false." - Harold Pinter
"In our postmodern culture which is TV dominated, image sensitive, and morally vacuous, personality is everything and character is increasingly irrelevant." - David F. Wells
Post-modernism is modernism with the optimism taken out - Robert Hewison
Asking you to think about the art. Whats does it make you feel or think?
What you think the art is about
The term postmodernism is used in a confusing variety of ways. For some it means anti–modern, while for others it means the revision of modernist premises
The seemingly anti–modern stance involves a basic rejection of the tenets of modernism
Postmodernism is seen as rejecting those elements that comprise the modernist worldview, including the ideas of truth, self, meaning, and purpose
Self-conscious Intertextuality

Q2. Use a quote by Witcombe (2000) to define the Post-Modern artist.
A2."The post–modern artist is ‘reflexive’ in that he or she is self–aware and consciously involved in a process of thinking about his or her cultural self in history, in damasking his or her own pretensions, and promoting processes of self–consciousness. "

Q3. Use the grid on pages 42 and 43 to summarize the list of the features of Post-
Modernity.
A3.Post modernity is a jumble of different ideas and cultures. pluralism is present as well as using cultures and ethnics in a surface deep way, not caring about the meaning of many things. There is a mixture of different cultures which blend together to make one hybrid culture. The attitude of post modernity undermines to show dept and seriousness. Making art that is taken aspect of work from the past and mixing it with the own ideas of the artists and making art that talks to people and sends a certain message out that is interesting or challenging, asking you to think about the the art - what it makes you feel and think it is about. Challenging in general the government, culture, metaphysical and beliefs.

Q5. 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.
A5. The ancient urn which was not made by himself but found at a market, Ai Wei Wei then inscribed the Coca-Cola label onto the urn. This was to show the uncertainty of value and beauty over time which related to post-modernity in the way that Wei Wei is challenging the way we think about from the past and materialistic ideas.

Q6. Research British artist Banksy's street art, and analyze the following two works by the artist
to discuss how each work can be defined as Post-Modern.
A6. The stencil of the man throwing the flowers to me seems like the man should be throwing something like a Molotov cocktail or a brick, but has been replaced with a bunch of flowers because you can not really hurt or destroy anything with flowers and flowers are nice and are a symbol of kindness and peace in some ways. With the second stencil of the caveman with the fast food must be about some kind of controversy with fast food business like McDonald's. The work of Banksy fits into the postmodern category as it is there to show a point which is challenging the way the world/certain countries are and also the way that some of his pieces of art could depict different means to different people.