Postmodern Characteristics Works Of Young British Artists Cultural Studies Essay

Postmodern Characteristics Works Of Young British Artists Cultural Studies EssayGot their fame in the previous(predicate) 1990s, the Young British Artists (YBAs) is known as a group of highly publicized British avant-garde subterfugeists active from the late 1980s (Chilvers, 1999). In this look into essay, the works of two leading deviceistic productionists of the YBAs, Marcus Harvey and Damien Hirst, will be menti stard and analyzed in spite of appearance the background of postmodern theories. The evident postmodern characteristics being discussed in the intravenous feeding art pieces is pluralism.Marcus Harvey (1963-now) is an English artist and painter and a leading member of YBAs his pieces cited and analyzed in this essay argon Myra (Fig. 1) and Toilet Roll (Fig. 2). Both of the two paintings are the representation of an object with blurred lines and pieces, seemingly as if the macro images are sedate by tiny units and sections. The composition of the paintings and the fuzzy impressions has largely corresponded to the meaning of pluralism in postmodern theories.Damien Hirst (1965-now) is a close friend of Marcus Harvey, he is the most prominent member of YBAs and most of his works focus on the theme of Death (National Galleries of Scotland n.d.). In this essay, two of his works being analyzed are the painting LSD (Fig. 3) and the sculpture For the bop of God (Fig.4). In these two art pieces, LSD is constructed utilize a storage-battery grid of dots of different colors while For the Love of God is consisted of human skull, platinum, and diamond. These pieces illustrate how single elements can produce new meanings when being composed together or re-arranged, similar as Harveys works, these art pieces are in any case a reflection of pluralism in postmodern viewpoint.In postmodernism, the word pluralism is generally utilize to describe the multiplicity of meaning and the status of a mixture and dis ready (Bohman 1999) of culture, identities, ide ologies, worldviews, religions etc. in postmodern era, it embraces the idea of fragmentation or incoherence in modern world.BodyPluralism is literally defined as the quality or state of being plural (Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, 2010), which is in contrary of dualism. As we learned from the course, pluralism within postmodern practice is not only apparent within its political content but also in the strategies, processes and the styles within the works themselves. Looking thorn to all the theories and argumentations on postmodernism, it is soft observed that the common ground among all the discourses is to admit the chaos, disorder, fragmentation, and even meaningless of any subject from my perspective, the balance of disorder and order is a representation of what we called pluralism.Doubtlessly, pluralism has become a dominant tendency in every aspect of modern life in the backdrop of globalization and commercialization tide. According to Milbrandt (2003), the characterist ics of postmodern world have directly triggered the emergence of popular culture and postmodern art forms such as visual art, on the new(prenominal) hand, conceptual barriers between so-called high and low culture have broken down due to the evolution of In data formation Communication Technologies (ICTs). In one word, to study todays artistic creations in turns of different postmodern characteristics, such as pluralism, will provide us a comprehensive understanding of postmodernism theories as intumesce as postmodern lives/practices.Speaking of the arena of art, more specifically, the YBAs, those conceptual artists, painters, sculptors and installation artists are noted for their flooring and creative tactics in making art and as reported by The withstander (14 June 2000), they dominated the art scene in Britain during the 1990s. By analyzing the four works I cited in this essay, I take prisoner the viewpoint that as typical Young British Artists works, those art pieces from M arcus Harvey and Damien Hirst have notably demonstrated and reflected the qualities of pluralism.Myra (Fig. 1) is one of the most famous and disputed works by Marcus Harvey, it is the portrait of a child killer Myra Hindley recreated from multiple copies of childrens handprints. In this artistic creation, numerous childrens handprints seem to cover and claw at Hindleys face and shape a alone(p) situation on the one hand, the image of her face is composed by those handprints while on the other hand, those tiny palms also obliterate her features. It is commended by The Guardian Weekend (Burn, 1997) that this prowess brings the chill of horror we feel but can rarely express and suggests the coolness that is, the affectless-ness the loss of sensation the stray the cold stoniness in the work itself. Connecting it with postmodern theories, one can easily catch the smell of pluralism in Myra. As Hughes (2004) and Knoper (2008) summarized (though the idea is originated from Lyotard), p ostmodern art represents the death of so-called meta-narratives kept up(p) in modern society and adopts pluralism to replace dualism, thus create a sense of chaos and disorder in meanings. Such is what we read from the controversial artwork Myra, in which the tiny units are both creating and destroying the whole iconic image, based on this, varied and more in-depth meanings are conveyed.Toilet Roll (Fig. 2) is another artwork by Marcus Harvey and from which we can also find evidence of pluralism. Ang (2006) points out that, the status of pluralism and the imitation of an existed style lead to things like pastiche (an empty copy), which is an idea that suggests small-minded of the implied depth. Toilet Roll the painting is a reflection of such death of depth I personally dont think the image in this artwork conveys frequently aesthetic delight, nor it is as meaningful and thought provoking as Myra. However, when we look at the fuzzy images and small blocks in the picture, a sense of meaningless and astonishment is generated in readers mind. In other words, from my perspective, no/little value or meaning is the meaning of this work.LSD (Fig. 3) by Damien Hirst might be the one among the four artworks that represents pluralism most apparently and directly a grid of dots of different colors, a simple mixture of plural elements. Similar to many postmodern paintings, one cannot easily grasp what the artist wants to express in this painting. Villeneuve Erickson (2008) point out that contemporary art cannot be judged simply by whether they are representational or attractive, and contemporary artists tend to use unconventional materials and touch difficult topics (such as sexuality, patriotism, and religion), which all present obstacles in understanding. So as to LSD, readers can have numerous interpretations to the grid of dots from varied perspectives. Those perceptions express the complex and different cultural backgrounds and social identities of the apprecia tors as well create the multi-dimensionality in interpretation (Song, 2009), which reveals a broader pluralism beyond the painting format itself. Besides, the interdisciplinary mediations and analysis (Traf-Prats, 2009) of contemporary art also reflects the spirit of pluralism (i.e. the interpretation of LSD may touch upon the field of music, political science, cultural studies, religious studies, etc.).For the Love of God (Fig.4) is a sculpture by Damien Hirst produced in 2007, it consists of human skull, platinum cast, and 8,601 diamonds (Hirst unveils 50m diamond skull, 2007). Besides the value of the material itself, the artistic value of this sculpture is also precious. George Steiner (2001) claimed in his book Grammars of Creation, the age such as ours is an age of ugliness the violence, oppression, economic enslavement and social irrationality. And this artwork For the Love of God shows a accept for beauty in this age of ugliness and death and is a restoration of respect fo r God (Moore, 2004). The materials used in this sculpture are shock, contrasting and creative, and when Hirst constitutes the skull, the platinum, and the diamonds together, they successfully create new meanings with sharp impacts such is an aspect of pluralism, that the single distinct elements can produce an organic whole.ConclusionIn conclusion, all these four art pieces analyzed in this essay is a good demonstration of pluralism in postmodern context. As artistic works created by British avant-garde artists in the post-1990s era, they successfully used some tactics and gimmicks to produce and convey what I would call a sense of nonsense and a sense of confusion and shock to the audience. It is not surprising that all the works can easily find a niche in postmodern interpretations, not only because they were produced in the context and with the idea of postmodern thoughts, but also because we are trying to read them from a postmodern perspective.Nonetheless, although it is hard to elaborate in details what aesthetic feelings or experiences they create to audience, because each individual has his/her own judgment on artistic (especially postmodern artistic) works and also because postmodern fine art is often anti-aesthetic, it is lock possible to reach a better understanding of them besides the sense of nonsense, confusion and shock. From my perspective, those works in general expressed the artists concern on the super C of modern technology, industrialization and commercialization, as well as the loss of meaning and depth in postmodern way of life, which are the eternal focuses of all forms of postmodern fine art.