“One of the central tenets of the postmodernist creed is that the impersonal stereotypes of the media have saturated personal behavior, that the anonymous, corporate ‘they’ reaches out to touch the most intimate ‘you.’ The case has been overstated by those critics who stake the originality and authenticity of their theories on the claim that media culture has robbed experience of originality and authenticity. Still, there was a point to be made. For artists, stalking the cliches of advertising and the movies often has meant following them into the home; although by definition the imagery of postmodernist photography is drawn from the public sphere, its themes not infrequently are domestic. Thus it is that the beleaguered modernist tradition, in its aim to clarify personal experience, and the postmodernist juggernaut, eager to unmask Big Brother, meet (of all places) in the kitchen. The messages that they bring there may not be the same, but that is what makes for a lively conversation.”
[Bibliography: MoMA – Galassi, 1991]
Related Posts
