ba dissertation - Natalia Balska

Natalia Balska
Graphic and Media Design, Illustration
Dissertation 2009/10
Liquid Modernity and conteporary Fine Art
Dissertation tutor Michael Clarke
Table of contents
Introduction
1
Chapter 1
3
Chapter 2
13
Chapter 3
22
Conclusion
28
Bibliography
29
I
List of Figures
Fig. 1
Jacques Villeglé (1959) ABC
p. 4
source: http://afsnitp.dk/plogultra/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/
villegle-abc-1959s600x600.jpg ; visited: 20.01.2010
Fig. 2
Manolo Valdes (2008) Mariana II
p. 6
source: http://images.artnet.com/artwork_images_
425110189_493635_manolo-valdes.jpg ; visited: 18.01.2010
Fig. 3
Manolo Valdes (2008) Mariana III
p. 6
http://images.artnet.com/artwork_images_425110189_502105_
manolo-valdes.jpg ; visited: 18.01.2010
Fig. 4
Herman Braun-Vega (1985) Aprende, hermano (Ingres)
p. 7
source: http://www.braun-vega.com/tableaux/grands/161.jpg ;
visited: 20.01.2010
Fig. 5
Robert Rauschenberg (1951) Untitled (Glossy Black Painting)
p. 8
source: http://www.sfmoma.org/images/artwork/
medium/98.306_01_g03.jpg ; visited: 17.01.2010
Fig. 6
p. 12
Chris Harisson (2007) Internet Map
source: http://www.chrisharrison.net/projects/InternetMap/ ;
visited: 15.01.2010
Fig. 7
Damien Hirst (1992) The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living
p. 15
source: http://artcritical.com/fyfe/images/hirst.jpg ;
visited: 17.01.2010
Fig. 8
Damien Hirst (1990) A Thousand Years
p. 16
source: http://www.artchive.com/artchive/h/hirst/hirst_thousand.jpg.html ; visited: 17.01.2010
Fig. 9
Damien Hirst (1991) The Acquired Inability to Escape
p. 17
source: http://www.tate.org.uk/about/tatereport/2008/collection/highlights/damien-hirst.htm ; visited: 17.01.2010
Fig. 10
Damien Hirst (2008) Beautiful Helios Hysteria Intense Painting (with Extra Inner Beauty)
p. 18
source: http://www.artquotes.net/masters/hirst/helios.htm ;
visited: 17.01.2010
Fig. 11
Damien Hirst (1993) Amphotericin B
p. 18
source: http://www.artnet.com/magazine/features/polsky/polsky12-5-5.asp ; visited: 18.01.2010
Fig. 12
Tracey Emin (1997) Terribly Wrong
p. 20
source: http://www.artnet.com/magazine/features/polsky/polsky12-5-5.asp ; visited: 17.01.2010
II
Fig. 13
Richard Long (1967) A Line Made by Walking
p. 23
source: http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/
exhibition/5:368/3655/3783 ; visited: 18.01.2010
Fig. 14
Michael Heizer (1969) Double negative
p. 24
source: http://doublenegative.tarasen.net/double_negative.html ;
visited: 20.01.2010
Fig. 15
Joseph Beuys (1982) 7000 oaks
p. 26
source: http://www.potz.blitz.szpilman.de/archives/1592 ; visited:
18.01.2010
III
INTRODUCTION
Sociologist Zygmunt Bauman as one of the subject of his studies took condition of man’s life. In his
attempt to define the state of reality he created the term Liquid Modernity. The new thesis did not
entirely separate oneself from the Postmodern, it was an effort to understand the processes beyond
the negation (by parody and pastiche) of the Modernism.
Bauman sees in Liquid Modernity a continuum of modernism. It’s distinguishable features: progress
and purification, are re-set into new reality of globalized and decentralized world.
After IIWW belief in infallible ideologies was undermined. Pressure put onto traits like flexibility,
relativism and individualization became a safety buffer for society, guarded against the come back
of authoritative regimes. Forming reality recognized all truths to be only temporary and perspective
dependent. Finding a common and long-lasting point of reference was impossible. At the same time
modernist way of improving the standard of living called progress, became the force behind new
changes.
Combination of these characteristics underlie the Liquid Modernity’s focus on transition. because of
undermining attitude towards any final or absolute targets, mobility, restructuring and redefining
of forms were favored. Attempts of change that did not aim at conclusion became directionless and
never ending.
Solidity, unitary of all forms once pursued, were labelled as unattainable. Obsession with progress replaced the faith in durability and fueled the production-consumption cycle. Fascination with novelty
was exploited as a sale’s strategy.
Modern man had to adapt to liquified environment. Stripped away from inescapable social, moral
and historical obligations, he could savour the liberty of choice that lied ahead. At the same time this
individual felt alienated from wholeness that solid modernity society provided.
Liquid Modernity’s matrix is defined by only one constant value found in it’s reality – the change.
Environment in which the major force is globalization, triggered creation of hybrid-culture. Culture
that re-defined the term itself ,not aiming to create absolute and eternal structures as well as disconnected from any particular land. Value was set in mobility of objects, people and flexibility of history,
tradition and relationships.
1
In the inquiry to the subject, art in Liquid Modernity, comparison with related theories will be beneficial. Art critic Nicolas Bourriaud and philosophers Hakim Bey, Guy Debord, engage with question
of artist’s function in contemporary times. Examining artworks that poses characteristic that can be
found in the thesis can prove it’s validity.
Concept of Liquid Modernity, sometimes indirectly, is part of contemporary art contention. Their
traces are present in number of works that attempt to define current reality. Investigation if art exhibits traits common to Bauman’s theories might be relevant proof of Liquid Modernity’s influence on
modern man. After all, it might be as Yoko Ono said “artists are going to be metronome of this society”.
2
CHAPTER I
The major change initiated by Liquid Modernity was the perceiving of forms permanence. Marketing introduced the quick and temporary solutions to meet the growing needs of consumers. These
new craving were aroused by the same marketing. (It can be called a closed cycle of production and
consumption. “The tautological character of the spectacle stems from the fact that its means and ends are identical.” (D­­­ebord 1983, p.10))
Satisfaction perceived as a fleeting moment was in contrary to values of workers society, which believed that only laborious work can bear desired fruits. The rising consumer society emphasized the
importance of immediateness of gaining gratification.
The growing competition between companies after the 2nd industrial revolution introduced widescale marketing which developed advertising techniques to enrapture potential consumers. The standard of living rapidly increased, with people having more money to freely spend. To cre­ate the endless demand for produced commodities, the marketed desired image had to constantly change. The
inversion of desire to the image instead of reality marked what Guy Debord called The Spectacle.
Society got used to the change as the way of living, and spending. The trends are introduced twice
a year, recent up-coming short term changes are declared in press or internet. The omnipresent
change pressurizes modern man to redefine his life strictly accordance to favored forms. Nowadays,
things that one has to acquire quickly become things one has to discard (the Eternal became an impossible idea). This type of reality is a typical form of Liquid Modernity.
Artists that once aimed to depict reality, are no longer able to depict the surrounding world. The
outside scenery changes too quickly for them to be capture it’s picture. That leaves them only with
the possibility to imitate the process itself. The world’s permanent state of the reality is the constant
change, with neither a beginning nor an end.
3
Zygmunt Bauman pointed representative artists of Liquid Modernity to be Jacques Villeglé, Manolo Valdes,
Herman Braun-Vega and Robert Rauschenberg.
One of the similarities that connects all of the mentioned artists is their use of layers in creative process.
Images attached on top of one another, where the former layers are visible thanks to incompletion or, what
is equally possible, deconstruction of the foreground (at the same time they do not aim to create any form of
dimensional illusion).
Layers stuck on canvas in paintings by Manolo Valdes can be interpreted either as being in the process of
creation or decay. Ragged textures that seem to be sticking to or pilling apart from the canvas. More than
the completeness of the work, what comes to mind while looking upon them is an ongoing process that has
been put into temporary standstill. The paradox of creation and decay at the same moment. Liquid Modernity that renounces the ideal in favor of transition.
Villeglé presents viewer with an everyday object in the gallery space. The artists have been collecting street
posters for many years. He himself tears them off the street walls and pastes them onto canvas. The collector
with that action puts an end to
Fig.1 Jacques Villeglé (1959) ABC
4
constantly unfinished and constantly updated records (of eminent modern art – the art of modern living.)
(Bauman 2005, p.63)
The end is regarded not as definitive but as a pause. The exhibits are movie-stills from the life of a
city, forming interwoven layers of meanings past, future and probable. Information will be erased
with the next layer. Villeglé’s works are not in themselves conclusion of any thought, but
uncanny medley of graveyards and building sites, meeting point for things about to die and things about to be
born in order to die a bit later (Bauman 2005, p.64).
The only reason for them to be of any interest to Villeglé is when by the action of anonymous lacerator (that emerged from the depths of the city) the foreground becomes incomplete. This is a chance
collaboration between the lacerator, that creates by destroying, and the artists, which preserves the
action. The devastation of the top layer sets free the forgotten but now incomplete meanings.
Cries that fall silent before reaching comprehension, messages that dissolve and vanish in a fraction of a
sentence, arrested and garrotted well short of birthplace of meaning; (…) (Bauman 2005, p.64).
Unravelled information may or might not be of any use. The foreground probably contains most recent (which today is equal with valid and important) data. With the laceration and what follows the
fragmentation of the message, the layers become similar in relevance, forming a texture of scattered
sings.
Villeglé’s posters are part of advertising iconography, Rauschenberg incorporates a pop-art like
aesthetic. Valdes and Braun-Vega both turn back to the creations of old masters. Not the recurring
themes and motives, but the images. Incorporation of already made picture makes it impossible for
artwork to directly refer to environment. Re-use sets the existing forms into new contexts and strips
them from former meaning. Thus the images become free of previous connotation, they’re independent existence.
Manolo Valdes persistently re-paints the portrait of queen Mariana by Velazquez.
Each canvas is material evidence of another beginning, another go, another attempt to finish the portrait
(Bauman 2005, p.64).
5
Fig.2 Manolo Valdes (2008) Mariana II ; Fig.3 Manolo Valdes (2008) Mariana III
But in his search for the wholeness of the depicted icon, he does not seem to arrive at a conclusion, or
conclusion upon arrival seems already outdated. Valdes has to keep reinventing the symbol. Liquid
Modernity rejects the idea of final truths and denies the form where no further change is possible (in
that instance Liquid Modernity is an open and never finished composition).
Braun-Vega also refers to existing works of art. In his collages, cut out parts of works are merged
together into new ‘landscape’. In “Aprende, hermano (Ingres)” the bathing Valpinçon is subjected to the
gaze of two latin american boys from contemporary times. In the background tourists are sunbathing
on the beach. Figures from different times meet in modern locations. This impossible acquaintances
form new image – the new truth. Braun-Vega does not care about the logical proceeding of time.
Everything is possible,
(…), once life and death have lost the distinction that bestows on them their meaning, having both become
similarly revocable and until further notice. (Bauman 2005, p. 65)
When things loose their unchangeable place on the time and space axis, the end that can also be the
beginning. Once definite values become relative. For society standing against reality where once solid
divisions become blended into one. Linear history lost difference between proceeding forward and
6
Fig.4 Herman Braun-Vega (1985) Aprende, hermano
(Ingres)
turning backward. Modern man has no roots that he can follow to beginning and no hope for his
travel to end in conclusion. He exists in state of suspension, endlessly drifting in the waters of Liquid
Modernity.
All of artists that are mentioned by Bauman, refer to the image. But this is not the image of reality.
There is no hope for a coherent one. In works they make reference and incorporate already made
pictures, newspaper photos or artworks of old masters. The simulacra of simulacra, the double lie.
The reference is made to images that nowadays saturate our reality (advertisements, films, snapshots).
7
The mass produced ‘entities’ can’t become the authoritative and valuable artworks (those were left
in the solid modernity). The image that influences one on the unconscious level when is passed by.
Described by Guy Debord as part of The Spectacle, where “everything that was directly lived has receded
into a representation.”(1983, p.7)
Damaged posters by Villeglé, the paused works of Valdes and impossible meetings of Braun-Vega.
Rauschenberg’s painted over newspaper cut-outs in ‘black paintings’. Cubist works incorporated collage, Picasso would use clippings with stories of himself. The newspaper fragment was as independent
complete story. In most Rauschenberg’s paintings it can hardly be the case. The clippings build up
the texture, they are mixed into paint. They exist within the medium. Their own story became irrelevant and often impossible to decipher. They are the incomplete data, noise of information society.
One can hardly be of interested in everything that newspaper contains. Some of the contents become quickly outdated. No one is capable of digesting all incoming information, unused they become
the background scenery of everyday life. This new scenery is never still (typical for Liquid Moder-
Fig.5 Robert Rauschenberg (1951) Untitled (Glossy Black
Painting)
8
nity), the headlines and article change daily, even quicker is the stream of updates on internet. Most
of it passes unnoticed. Because of the rapidly changing environment and following it uncertainty,
people become anxious. In Liquid Modernity fear of the unknown and losing way transformed into
consumer drive. Magazines identify what to buy, lifestyle articles promote approved styles of living.
(There is a demand for various advising experts and marketing companies, who set their goals to
guide people in the difficult task of making decisions.)
Recently Nicolas Bourriaud proposed a different key to interpretation of processes in liquid modernity. The new stance was described at the Altermodern exhibition and in the accompanying book,
The Radicant. Bourriaud does not use the term Liquid Modernity in his theories but still refers to
it’s main concerns: Nomadism of individuals, hybrid culture, consumerism, globalization and travel
information. For him those aspects of newly forming reality can become beneficial grounds for art.
Evaluation of Bourriaud’s complicated concept of Altermodern could easily become a topic of it’s
own. To examine the similarities between the two thesis focus on a particular subject is required. In
this inquiry it will be common to both hybrid culture.
The main distinction between Bauman and Bourriaud theories lies in their relation to Postmodernity. Liquid Modernity distinguishes itself but can coexist with the Postmodern. Altermodern, “born
amid the cultural chaos of globalization and the commodification of the world” (Bourriaud 2009b, p.60), supposedly replaces the now irrelevant Postmodern.
Bearing at the same time ideas of 20th century modernism and postcolonialism, Bourriaud constructs on reality refuse both utilization and hereditary constraints. The emerging reality being both
heterogeneous (borrowed from different social registers or cultures) and heterochronic (borrowed
from different historical periods), is a decentralized form build from the network between the individual and the outside. Time, defined by Bourriaud as a second to geography interest of exploration,
is constructed from multiple temporalities. This emerging reality defined as
9
a positive experience of disorientation through (…) exploring all dimensions of present, trailing lines in all
directions of time and space” (Bourriaud 2009a, p.13).
The encounter between forms and time in a undeterminable flow of reality, which Bourriaud described as a collective without common benchmark. This liquid reality has distinctive culture of it’s
own – hybrid culture (with not much reference to classical hybrid culture found i.e. Latin America).
Representative inhabitants of the Altermodern reality are the nomads, travelers always in exile. The
Radicants as Bourriaud named them,”develop their roots as they advance”(2009b, p.51). The term adequately describes the traits of the man that adjusted himself to life in the Liquid Modern reality.
Their identity is developed on the way. Not as a result of frantic search for lost roots typical for Postmodernism, they savour the new liberation.
The radicant can, without injury, cut itself off from its first roots and reacclimate itself. There is no single
origin, but rather successive, simultaneous, or alternating acts of enrooting (Bourriaud 2009b, p.52).
Favoring ‘hybridization’ over ‘assimilation’ as the form of habitation. This new artists, like semionauts journey through contemporary tangle of multicultural references.
The hybrid-culture inhabitants, as they renounced they ‘fixed’ roots, have to relay on what they
temporarily ‘feed’ on. They create brief relations with current habitat. In the center of attention is
the journey, velocity and momentum. Radicant’s form is not reducible to self-contained being, only
“movement (…) permits the formation of identity” (Bourriaud 2009b, p.55). ‘Unfixedness’ grants them the
unrestricted freedom for creativeness and allows to fully experience reality (by being part of global
network of circulating forms). This description might be annotated to many of contemporaries, including Altermodern artists.
The liberated way of life of new global inhabitant is envisaged as appropriate modern ideal. But there
is shadow overcasting the path. The Radicant’s identity may not be dependent on the given legacy
but at the same time it has become subordinate to the process of own creation. Their existence is
bound to the land they traverse, to stop or retire is to extinguish oneself. With their liberty came the
life-long task of redetermining own roots, analogically to the story of original sin which forced man
to forever choose between good and evil. As Bauman wrote in reference, identity stopped being
a inherited continual form instead in Liquid Modernity man struggle is, in archetype similar to that
of mythical Sisyphus, a series never ending new beginnings. While time proceeds his all energy goes
into the effort to conclude the task. To our reality solidity, finality is a threat, progress and change
are important. In order adjust to the environment man has to play by his laws.
The present reality (call it Liquid Modern or Altermodern) allows creation of only temporary iden-
10
tity, the inhabitants are sentenced to life of present. Radicant’s life can only be montages of fragments
they appropriated from the surrounding. With their temporary roots, they exist simultaneously local
and in exile. Detached from any solid bonds they are traveling thought own life like tourists. They
can experience fully the nature of reality but with the eyes of a stranger.
Dessert nomads abandon useless possessions in order to travel, modern man ,whose fate is not very
different from theirs, leaves inhabited forms. Objects in order to accompany the traveller in his journey, undergone viatorization (setting form in motion, incorporating movement into objects). Bourriaud describes the relevance of processes of production and distribution in understanding artworks.
The use of displacement and translation (associated with travel) in creation are also common traits in
life of Radicants. “Works presented in Altermodern unravel themselves along receding lines of perspective”, “trajectories have become forms” (Bourriaud 2009a, p.13­).
11
CHAPTER II
Culture is a set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes the community
it derives from. Artworks are material objects of culture, documenting it’s development as well as retaining the traces of society that they are fruits of. Artists, even unconsciously, become mediums who
depict their own surroundings and artworks are vessels of these findings.
Our times have brought to us a post-Fordian capitalism’s consumer culture, where acknowledged
value is profit. Today if an artist that is unable to develop a definite stance within this new reality, he
will inevitably became part of Liquid Modernity.
Postmodernism is practicing modernism on the streets as once was suggested by Joseph P. Natoli,
in Postmodern Reader. In the Postmodern the once high art started to look for inspiration in low
culture and popular media. The iconography expanded with images of iconic objects and celebrity
personas. In the process of creation artists started to incorporate industrial techniques, i.e. screen
print. Practices that embraced this new reference putted an end to Greenbergian outlook on purity
or art. Where every medium would have exclusive characteristics and limitations, this theory may be
regarded a typically modernist.
Amongst this chaos artist had to learn how to survive outside educational institutions. The art world
successively started to resemble every other market. Creators would turn themselves into a marketable merchandise in pursuit of patrons and recognition in media. The popular press and television
has a demand only for selected type of personalities, or maybe more precise term would be selfcreated images of oneself, that exemplify certain traits. Andy Worhole’s prediction that “in the future
everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes” (from Catalogue of an exhibition of his art in Stockholm,
Sweden) is probably still impossible yet quite common fantasy of our times. What is accurate in this
statement is short period of stardom at offer.
The liquid modern, consumer society settled in theaffluent oart of the globe has no room for either martyrs or
heroes – since it undermines, derogates frim and militates against (…) values that prompted their demand
and supply (Bauman 2005, p.45).
It questions “delaying gratification now in the name of greater gains in the future” (Bauman 2005, p.46) The
time has come for two different media personalities – the victim and the celebrity. Their value lies
in the briefness of the role they play in collective consciousness. Artist interested in media’s attention
would embody one of those two archetypes.
13
Examples of new medial archetypes can be found in generation of English artists starting their carriers in the nineties. They were called Young British Artists (YBA in short), Julian Stallabrass named
them High Art Lite (in his book of the same title). Facing recession after graduation, emerging artists
took more aggressive approach to marketing their art. The operation was large scaled and targeted
wide public.
In the current highly image saturated reality where most media creations are commercialized, YBA
employed similar marketing strategies and fought for attention with other products of mass culture.
To be talked about seemed good enough. Remembering that in consumer culture governed by marketing laws, what is talked about is popular, what is popular becomes tangible object (coincidental to
Guy Debord thought
the spectacle presents itself as a vast inaccessible reality that can never be questioned. Its sole message is:
“What appears is good; what is good appears.”(1983, p.9).
YBA strategy was to grab attention by shock and scandal,. They tested boundaries of good(with
implication to sellable) taste, the boundaries of taste that could suit the masses.
During nineties Damien Hirst started his career. Being as a founder of YBA, an artists-curator,
an entrepreneur that risen from poor background. Probably the embodiment of a spectrum of cliché
characteristics of any success story. In less than a decade Damien Hirst has risen to celebrity status.
Hirst was recognized by mass press and styled as ‘marketable naivete’ that has descendent upon
the existing art to revolutionize it’s ways. There were not many obstacles for such impression. In the
90’ties contemporary art was virtually unknown to common people and most of them still found
Kashmir’s Malevich “Black square” an outrageous as an idea. On contrary High Art Lite could be
understood outside of academic circle. The artworks operated with widely understood visual vocabulary.
Firstly, they incorporated iconic images that viewer could easily link to their previous context. As
Stallabrass explained in High Art Lite, viewer might feel uneasiness confronted with Hirst’s shark (in
14
the work “The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living”) not because of supposed implications to death, but by the subconscious reference made to the film “Jaws”. Combining the icon
of modern fear with the controlled environment of the exhibit, a glass vitrine that brings to mind the
showcases in Natural History Museum Hirst signified that it was possible to en capture the ‘emotion’
and reenact them on the viewer.
Secondly, the use of everyday objects in works allowed for easy association between viewer and art.
In “Au Naturel” Sarah Lucas created a semiotic understanding of the subject by referring to verbal
english jokes.
Thirdly, incorporation of parody and pastiche in many of the works allowed made artworks more
accessible to mass audience.
In the society used to television’s voyeurism, where even documental films because of only two
dimensionality seem unreal and audience is saturated with gruesome images, Hirst’s exhibits can
bring a new and intriguing sensation. Artworks that often resemble a recreated horror scene in real
world (but still in controlled environment of glass vitrine that divides the outside and inside). “brutally
honest and confrontational” as Virginia Button (cited Stallabrass 1999, p.20) described Hirst’s art. It
highlighted the importance of radicalism in YBA works. Shock impact they have on viewer is one of
the distinguishable features. Stallabrass argued that what is shocking in Hirst’s art comes from the
reference to mass culture horror movies.
Stallabrass in his book High Art Lite gives a detailed account of evolution of Hirst self image over
Fig.7 Damien Hirst (1992) The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living
15
Fig.8 Damien Hirst (1990) A Thousand Years
time. From the moment where he first caught the eye of another entrepreneur and marketing genius Charles
Saatchi with a piece “A thousand years”. Shown on a self-curated exhibition Gambler. Installation where a life
cycle of flies was recreated. Insects fed on rotting cows head and died electrocuted by accident by fly zapper,
all packaged in minimal framed showcase. Some recall the impression the piece gave them
Kind of, just so real. I mean you’re actually looking at it. I couldn’t believe that he wasn’t (…) referring to something.
It really was it (Britart 2003).
Shock tactic and gruesomeness of artworks was what brought Hirst in the spotlight.
If we go back to the thesis about art of Adorno compare them to writings of YBA curators who saw Damien
Hirst as one to reintroduce the pure emotions and sensibility to art. We have to think over what kind of traits
posses society, that is able to experience catharsis while looking over a horror scene.
The installation “The Acquired Inability to escape” recreates works space – chair, desk on which lies a pack of
cigarets, lighter and ashtray full of cigaret butts. Whole composition is closed from the surrounding world in
the autograph minimalistic vitrine. Like most Hirst’s pieces, the piece should remind the viewer of the elusiveness of life. The sealed off area should be like a movie-still or photograph, a encaptured fleeting everyday
moment.
For most viewers the hint to interpretation emerges from given title. But the practice is considerably different to conceptual art where title was part of coherent whole of work, with visible reference to the ‘object’ (like
Joseph’s Kosuth “One and Three Chairs”). YBA art of they often seem an chance match and the only reference
to the subject theme.
16
The elements: cigarets, lighters, frames have become more like a trademark, their mystical meaning lies
within the created image of Damien Hirst.
Stallabrass described most f these pieces as “assemblages of objects and titles”(1999, p.27), which are thrown at
the viewer to be deciphered on ones account. Hirst aim is “only to present never to comment”(Stallabrass 1999,
Fig.9 Damien Hirst (1991) The Acquired Inability to Escape
p.27) at the same time renouncing responsibility for his art.
Hybrid culture is typical for Liquid Modernity, where everything has to succumb to the law of change.
Inhabitants of hybrid culture have to abide to the law of constant change, endlessly have to discard and recreate their identity. In this chaotic process and constant stripping and pilling of layers, the image of oneself
becomes unstable and particular elements become incoherent.
Damien Hirst marketed as the childlike genius that is not afraid to touch upon heavy themes. At the same
time he has no problem with distancing himself from his topical creations, as well as any possible art discourse. In an interview with Francesco Bonami he states
The art world is fantastic, you can have so much fun. I can walk into my gallery with a banana stuck to a dog shit
17
and ask Joy what he thinks about it. He can laugh but he has to think twice about it – especially with
a good title – he has to look at it, he hast to consider it (1999 p.120).
It is hard to define Hirst’s point: is he an artist not scared of crowds scrutiny, does he aim to play
with the reader, or is it just a shallow post-modern irony.
Duality of possible interpretation links to spin and spot paintings. Grid allocated spots and radial
canvases spun at high speed come in infinite variations and quantities. Pieces that might seem to
have more a collectors than visual or conceptual value. Ideal consumer item. Stallabrass accurately
estimates
the only clever thing about either series is their exploration of the market (which could be read as an implied
critique of the market mechanisms, but equally well could be not) (1999, p.28).
Fig.10 Damien Hirst (2008) Beautiful Helios Hysteria Intense Painting (with Extra Inner
Beauty) ; Fig.11 Damien Hirst (1993) Amphotericin B
Now that Hirst has the acquired status of celebrity and is know as much for being an artist as his
social life and parties, like an accurate descriptions of stardom by Daniel Boorstin “A sing of celebrity
is that his name is often worth more than his services”. Selling art under trademark image. “The ironic excuse
a’la Warhol” which as Situationist noticed “the system had become resistant to”(Stahlhut 2006, p.7). Will
fame enabled Hirst once aspired to get away with mediocre ideas. Bauman highlights that image like
other items that exists in consumer circuit has a date of expiry (a very short lifespan). Even through
artists of YBA generation still anticipates fame but not necessary because of their works.
18
In a world where everything comes with a price tag, anything that doesn’t is viewed as suspicious.
Consumer culture will aim to measure worth of the immaterial things with the only available scale,
feelings, beliefs and relationships didn’t escaped that approach.
As mentioned at the beginning, Liquid Modernity gave birth to another archetype – the victim. In
consumer’s society there is strong belief that suffering is fault of third entities and if experienced one
should demand compensation. Victim’s experience awaken interest in other people, they reaffirm “the
therapeutic impact of the explanation-of-pain-by victimization”(Bauman 2005, p.48). Casualties of accidents
or illnesses provides cheap thrill for gloss press. For the victim this media recognition can become
gratification for sad experiences. Because of the close link of victimhood and compensation, some
people with exhibit (and sometimes even create) their own stories of hard life to gain fame. It also
influences practices in contemporary art. Exploring of own victimization can be linked to an amount
of autobiographical art. An example can be Tracey Emin’s body of work.
Tracey Emin’s works are based on autobiographical story. There is barely a distinction between art
and life. In contrast to other artists working with this theme, Emin’s works give an impression that
all intimate details are shown. Proclaimed to be art about trivial but hard things of ordinary people.
Featuring events like abortions, sex, fights with depression and heavy partying mixed in between
adolescent and family stories. It is hard to start discourse about such art, it is a showcase of author’s
past experiences. Quoting Stallabrass
what is there to say about Emin’s art other than to hold it up for viewer’s appreciation. Exclaiming ‘here it
is’ (1999, p.36).
Supposed victims may seek compensation from society in a form of attention. This kind of personal
exhibitionism in search of fame, is typical for talk shows like The Jerry Springer Show.
Films “Why I never became a dancer” or “CV Cunt Vernacular” which show how artist tackled the hardships of life. One tells the story of how teenage girl lost her dream as result of third parties vicious
revenge, the second tells the the hard emotional experience of her abortions. They establish Emin’s
image as an innocent girl that became prey to cruelties of world, the archetype role of fighting victim.
Making art is Emin’s way to liberate from past suffering. This kind of confessional art serves the artist as therapy. Similar works are often made by patients during expressive therapy sessions. Because
of interlink between creation and victimized image of Emin, in this case “to reject the art is also heartlessly to reject the artist” (Stallabrass 1999, p.42).
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Fig.12 Tracey Emin (1997) Terribly Wrong
For art not distancing itself from artist’s personal experience truth is everything. Authenticity and
sincerity are the main values of autobiographical art and as far as possible they have to convince the
viewer. But even Emin has to admit that the whole process of creation is self scrutinized as every element is chosen and arranged by her. Thus it shows it is possible to include not only the truth. To help
leap over this gap, which all autobiographical art contains, comes the aesthetics. Crude, home made,
with use of personal objects, try to reassure viewer of artist genuineness.
Progressive sociologists, once they had finished shaking their heads sadly over the discovery that the value of
the art object had become nothing but its market price, and that the artists were working according to the
norms of profitability, they decided that we should return to the source of art, to everyday life – not in order to
change it, of course, for such is not their function, but rather to make it the raw material for a new aesthetic
which would defy packaging techniques and so remain independent of buying and selling ( Stahlhut 2006,
p.185).
Emin’s monoprints or fabric appliqués refer to past events. Prints resemble scribbles with overlapping layers of drawings and text, full of mirrored letters and misspellings. The appliques are often
decorated with hand sewn words and images. Especially the later medium is associated with crafts,
nonetheless both give reference to objects from art therapies. But this created images under closer
examination reveals inconsistency, if the art is therapeutic what purpose would have showcasing and
selling it, also if it should be a liberating process why is she need help from assistants.
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Art consumers don’t seem to mind this dualities. Emin is embodiment of postmodern marketable
primitivism, for those that want a piece of fin de siècle Lasaux in their collection.
Around 2000 interest in YBA slowly began to fade. Prices of works plummeted. Only few artists, Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin, Rachel Whiteread, still received amount of recognition similar to
before. British art gradually lost impetus.
In the post-millennial art YBA practices are still used. New artists emerge that continue the legacy.
Sarah Marple is the heir of Tracey Emin, her works revolve around her islam root and feminist
stance. Yet, she received a lot smaller acknowledgement than her prototype. Making a name might
prove tough quest for rising new Young British Artists. Audience used to strategies of previous generation may prove immune to most of the tactic.
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CHAPTER III
Artworks,as objects of culture, always favored the eternal values over briefness and elusiveness.
Unlike in other art genres,theatre and music, the processual and performative qualities of visual arts
were ignored. The 20th century finally brought the change to that belief, with writings on this topic
of such influential philosophers as Theodore Adorno. For him artwork should be regarded as “both the
result of the process and the process itself at a standstill” (Adorno 2004,p.237)
The big art revolution that finally came forward after IIWW, when the utilitarian ideas modernism
came to demise and less structured – more expressionist forces awakened. The focus of interest slowly
drifted to more performative and conceptual practices and the way object hood is defined within artwork. With artist like Pollock and de Kooning paving the path for the new genres. (Of course there
is traceable history of such practices pre 1945, in the body of work like dadaist Kurt Schwitters or
futurist theatre, but the notion fully surfaced at the dusk of Postmodern.)
Ephemeral art is an umbrella term for a spectrum of practices that in their clearly incorporate and
exhibit processuality, transitions and change that occur over time period. The object often transforms
or may be immaterial. Their name came from the fact that their creation contained from the beginning symptoms of their future change and destruction. New, forth dimension – time was introduced
to otherwise static art. Emerging genres also tried to redefined the link between the artist,artwork
and viewer. Most known were the Happening, the Environment, Situationist practices, Performance,
Land art, Installation, Body art, Conceptual art and Kinetic sculpture. Line dividing different mediums was blurred so often they were called Intermedia.
The rise of ephemeral arts in sixties is correlated to the shift to Postmodernism in philosophical
thought of west and change in economy resulting in late capitalism society. One of explanations
proposed that in non-object art origins lay the urge to escape gallery system, rejection and rebellion
against it’s consumerist values.
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In the beginning artists tried to explore the new discovered fields. The simplest of actions became
the material for research and creation. In the case of Richard Long’s work, the basic motion of
walking(which connects to traveling) is combined with ritualized actions performed on site.
Exhibition consist of document from the journeys: photographs, maps, descriptions. Not objects to
acquire but traces. The first of his works, “Line I made by walking”, stressed the process of creation of
the line in grass. The path was made by repeatedly walking back and forth. In Long’s art the object
is substituted by the document of a action prior to the result. The line existed for only a fixed time
was just a part in the process of becoming, existence and demise.
The site specific art may easily escapes traditional consumer circuit, but the matter is more complicated. Bauman ascribed the fleetness (in this instance of art object) to typical characteristic of forms
that originate on Liquid Modernity’s matrix. Symptoms of demise that can be found shortly after
object is formed. Need for novelty dictates the typical for mass consumed products short life span and
disinterest in stability and coherence.
Fig.13 Richard Long (1967) A Line Made by Walking
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Borderline identity is embodied in ephemeral art, it is against consumerism and at the same time it
opposes the traditional values of timeless artwork, subscribing under none and being part of both.
Although the object has drifted to the realm of immateriality, the means artists create it rarely
don’t involve money. The friction between this notion is different depending on the artwork. Early
Land Art practices are good example of such dichotomy. In the first two stages,the gender bend
towards the archetypical lone struggle of man against the nature.
Mass culture had a lot of problem in incorporation of Land Art due to it’s large scale, often momentary existence and what was the biggest obstacle that it exist only in relation to landscape. Nonetheless to execute some pieces large sums of money were required. It may seem paradoxical as some
artwork didn’t have a fixed form or were created by subtracting elements from the land rather than
Fig.14 Michael Heizer (1969) Double negative
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adding them. A good example is monumental work of Michael Heizer “Double Negative”. It was
formed by displacing roughly 240000 tons of earth from the borders of Mormon Messa canyon in
order to create two aligned trenches. Consisting of created empty space, it compared the scale human
creation to that of the natures. The enormous operation, that involved several crews of workers and
machines, was funded by artist’s gallerist Virginia Dwan. The site was later donated to Museum of
Contemporary art in Los Angeles and as artist wished was left untouched. Double Negative started
to erode and is slowly disappearing. In contrast to normal functions of museum, which is to save and
restore cultural items for next generations, this one is going to decay. It share the fate of countless
objects and sites discarded and left by consumer society.
Most of Land Art works were site specific and shared with public via documentation. Some of works
were just momentary experiences, Oppenheim’s “Whirlwind spiral” existed until the wind didn’t
diffuse the smoke, others could be created only with direct involvement of natural phenomena like
Walter de Maria’s “Lightning field”. Most viewers could only see the photographs of what did happen on the vast desserts of America. Land art never definitively cut ties nor it was against gallery
system. This regression of exhibited artwork into mere visual representations in photographs might
be interpreted as influence consumer culture simulacra, where the image become more real that the
occurrence itself.
A lot of practices and movements of Ephemeral art sprung as a counter measure for the commodity abundance and consumer society. Artists begun to question their role in society, sometimes referring to more primitive customs.
First works were published that recognized the existence of The Spectacle, a state of society where
reality has been substituted with own representation. Guy Debord’s Society of Spectacle (published
in 1967), become a theoretical base. New task was set, to creating art works that couldn’t be commodified, art that would be no different from life. The movements that sprung in years 1950-1970
(the same period as the biggest economy growth in history) pursued direct involvement of the viewer,
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an option of active participation in contrast to passive role one played in The Spectacle. For the first
time there was a need to awaken the viewer and artists that get involved in the community. The postwar reality that slowly diffused in The Spectacle became the biggest rival for visual arts. New art had
to be an immediant and direct experience, that could not be offered by representation.
Fluxus, international art movement, that advocated merging different disciplines and media in
practices called Intermedia. In attempt to make viewers participate, artist would urge him to use
imagination. Yoko Ono published a book Grapefruit in 1964 which involved around 150 instructional pieces. Event scores were to be completed in the mind of the viewer. At the end of the process,
the created image would become an artwork, hence everyone could be an artist. Idea of an art not as
part of high culture but a play, a game. “All power to imagination” (Anon cited Stahlhut 2006, p.187)
would state graffiti at Sorbonne in 1968. Creativeness against consumerism.
Efforts of Joseph Beuys in his efforts to create social sculpture, where every individual person in
a community is a part of enormous, complicated work of art. The theory found embodiment in such
actions as “7000 oaks” presented on Documenta 7. For exhibition Beuys prepared a pile of basalt
stones with strict instruction that each of them could be moved out of location only if a tree would be
Fig.15 Joseph Beuys (1982) 7000 oaks
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planted. Over 5 years 7000 trees were planted over the city of Kassel. It formed a changing sculpture
situated over all city scape. Art influencing directly everyday art rather than becoming only visual
aesthetics of The Spectacle.
Event scores would also find their use in happenings. Merge of 3 different genders – theatre, music
and visual arts. Scripts which only briefly indicated the steps of interaction between audience and
artists and allowed chance to lead the direction of unfolding events. Happenings clearly broke the
wall between the roles of ‘performer’ and ‘spectator’. Because of their undecided factor, happenings
for long were of no use to the mass culture. Nonetheless over the years parts of base idea resurfaced in
forms of Flash mobs, movement Reclaim the streets and as scheme of marketing events.
There were movements who presented much more radical approach to the growth of mass consumer
culture. Started by Isidore Issou Letterism and following it Situationism International (SI in short).
Especially the second one took very direct counter stance to The Spectacle. Built on theories of Guy
Debord, SI goal was to awaken the passive audience from The Spectacle. They developed variety
practices set in urban landscape, the Derive, the Situation, use of detournemet and psychogeography.
Situationists program was highly political and they were actively involved in the uprisings of 1968.
The ideology developed by artists in the sixties became fundaments for later philosophical theories. Hakim Bey writes about the practice of immediatism (exposure to direct experiences) as
a modern man’s way to rebuild the society. The theory merges practices of Fluxus and Situationism.
It is does not directly attack The Spectacle but proposes alternative route for development of society. Individuals establish their identity thanks to creativeness. Bey makes reference to economy of
the gift (common example is Potlatch practiced by native Americans) that could set a new direction
to currently commodified relationships. Interactions based on the idea of sharing, self-development
and mutual learning. Bonds that would be made by experiencing the real world, could prove to make
structure that is so desperately needed in the eroding, Liquid Modern society.
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CONCLUSION
The acquired evidence enable us to state that Liquid Modernity's characteristics manifest, directly
or indirectly, in number of practices post IIWW. Furthermore, the theory provides explanation of art
movements that extend beyond the notion of Postmodern, more precisely the negation of Modernism.
Bauman himself wrote of possibility to interpret art from the perspective of his writings. He was interested in how artists depict reality. He found that some creators in the futile attempt to capture the
temporary surrounding are able to visualize the process of change. That is the way Bauman saw art
of Manolo Valdes, Jacques Villeglé, Herman Braun-Vega and Robert Rauschenberg as visionary.
Influences of Bauman theories can be found in theoretical works of Nicolas Bourriaud, curator of
Altermodern.
There are also other also other, not described by Bauman, links between Liquid Modernity and art
which this investigation was trying to uncover.
Glory given by consumer society was pursued in a number of movements. At first it might have been
the ambiguous attempts of Warhol, but by the time of nineties Young British Artists commercialization of art has for some become an objective. Artists submerged into the flow of mass media, achieving recognitions like any other celebrities. Commodity oriented society, where everything should
have some kind of material merit, found opposition in groups like Situationists and Fluxus.
Ephemeral art embodies the broken boundary between the processes of creation and destruction. In
Liquid Modernity no alterations is irreversible, solid forms are archaisms in this new reality. Progress
has a new meaning, now it is directionless change that creates variations of forms. In this process
there is no final result.
While uncovering the relationships between the Liquid Modernity and art, new findings bring to the
light more questions. The forms that Bauman has described find their way into contemporary art debate. Contemporary studies, like the one of Nicolas Bourriaud aim to fill the blank gaps in the story
of relationship between the formed reality and objects that become it's representation. In future there
is need to pursue investigation in this field.
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