a paper in progress
Updated version
just in case you're bored and checking livejournal, here's the paper i'm currently writing:
Tiffany Saulter
History of Photography
Final Paper
Postmodernism and Feminist Critique
Postmodernism is according to Jean-Francois Lyotard’s belief deconstruction, “instead of changing an ideology, he dismantles it; instead of just shifting a position, it also shifts space…..deconstruction investigates the structure of the text” (Chaplin, 124). Postmodernism through pastiche (a dramatic, literary, or musical piece openly imitating the previous work of other artists, often with satirical intent) deconstructs the images of the time. In my paper, I will be discussing postmodernism and three female artists who used feminist rhetoric in their work to deconstruct stereotypes and conventions in their work; specifically the work of Cindy Sherman, Martha Rosler, and Sherrie Levine.
Linda L. Nicholson says that postmodernism “is a natural ally for feminism” (Chaplin, 146). They have many of the same goals. Therefore, the pairing of postmodernism with the work of Sherman, Rosler, and Levine helps us understand the motivations of both movements. Postmodernism was waved in by what is called “the death of the subject” (Jameson, 20). The individualism of art was gone; every subject had already been done. The “imitation of dead styles” became prevalent. Fredric Jameson refers to George Lucas’s American Graffiti as the first film to try the “imitation of dead styles”. It tried to capture the feelings of the time of Eisenhower, the 1950s. This film led the way to others like Chinatown and Conformista. Postmodernism is a form of nostalgia (Jameson, 19). It “reshuffles the fragments of preexistent texts” (Chaplin, 137). The self criticizing nature of art was gone (Greenberg, late writings). It became more critical of the culture.
“Modernism has the problem of how to represent reality, postmodernism inject a flimsiness and instability into our experience of reality, and thus poses the problem of what reality is”; this is an issue that the work of Martha Rosler is deeply embedded in (Chaplin, 134). Rosler’s work melds together two forms of pre-existing photography, war photography and home/decoration photography. She collages the images together in a way that is critical of the role of women and of society as a whole. Rosler creates an interesting dichotomy with her strange juxtaposition of images. Rosler was disdainful of the emptiness of Pop Art and wasn’t interested in the self-conscious nature of conceptual art. She wanted to turn art outside of itself, outside of the self-defining nature of modernism. She wanted to tackle the issues of the real world (Kley, 50). In one of the pieces from her very feminist series Bringing the War Home, she uses the image of a woman vacuuming her curtains from a decorating magazine. What the viewer sees through the drawn curtains however is an image from the Vietnam War of soldiers and artillery coming up on a group of rocks. She creates images that look realistic but are not. She makes us question what reality is, which appears to be one of her purposes. Though they are in the midst of a war, the focus was still on having the perfect home and the appearance of perfection. Is this the reality or is what’s going on behind the curtain the reality, “her work addresses the mythologies of everyday life….” .
just in case you're bored and checking livejournal, here's the paper i'm currently writing:
Tiffany Saulter
History of Photography
Final Paper
Postmodernism and Feminist Critique
Postmodernism is according to Jean-Francois Lyotard’s belief deconstruction, “instead of changing an ideology, he dismantles it; instead of just shifting a position, it also shifts space…..deconstruction investigates the structure of the text” (Chaplin, 124). Postmodernism through pastiche (a dramatic, literary, or musical piece openly imitating the previous work of other artists, often with satirical intent) deconstructs the images of the time. In my paper, I will be discussing postmodernism and three female artists who used feminist rhetoric in their work to deconstruct stereotypes and conventions in their work; specifically the work of Cindy Sherman, Martha Rosler, and Sherrie Levine.
Linda L. Nicholson says that postmodernism “is a natural ally for feminism” (Chaplin, 146). They have many of the same goals. Therefore, the pairing of postmodernism with the work of Sherman, Rosler, and Levine helps us understand the motivations of both movements. Postmodernism was waved in by what is called “the death of the subject” (Jameson, 20). The individualism of art was gone; every subject had already been done. The “imitation of dead styles” became prevalent. Fredric Jameson refers to George Lucas’s American Graffiti as the first film to try the “imitation of dead styles”. It tried to capture the feelings of the time of Eisenhower, the 1950s. This film led the way to others like Chinatown and Conformista. Postmodernism is a form of nostalgia (Jameson, 19). It “reshuffles the fragments of preexistent texts” (Chaplin, 137). The self criticizing nature of art was gone (Greenberg, late writings). It became more critical of the culture.
“Modernism has the problem of how to represent reality, postmodernism inject a flimsiness and instability into our experience of reality, and thus poses the problem of what reality is”; this is an issue that the work of Martha Rosler is deeply embedded in (Chaplin, 134). Rosler’s work melds together two forms of pre-existing photography, war photography and home/decoration photography. She collages the images together in a way that is critical of the role of women and of society as a whole. Rosler creates an interesting dichotomy with her strange juxtaposition of images. Rosler was disdainful of the emptiness of Pop Art and wasn’t interested in the self-conscious nature of conceptual art. She wanted to turn art outside of itself, outside of the self-defining nature of modernism. She wanted to tackle the issues of the real world (Kley, 50). In one of the pieces from her very feminist series Bringing the War Home, she uses the image of a woman vacuuming her curtains from a decorating magazine. What the viewer sees through the drawn curtains however is an image from the Vietnam War of soldiers and artillery coming up on a group of rocks. She creates images that look realistic but are not. She makes us question what reality is, which appears to be one of her purposes. Though they are in the midst of a war, the focus was still on having the perfect home and the appearance of perfection. Is this the reality or is what’s going on behind the curtain the reality, “her work addresses the mythologies of everyday life….” .