What is Postmodernism?

‘In art, postmodernism was specifically a reaction against modernism which had dominated art theory and practice since the beginning of the twentieth century. The term postmodernism is also widely used to describe challenges and changes to established structures and belief systems that took place in Western society and culture from the 1960s onwards.’ (1)

In this image that I found on Pinterest, I was firstly drawn to the rainbow colours suggesting something magical. Within this image, many layers are used, images of clouds have been layered leading up to the roman style statue of a head. The off colours within the image reveal a 60’s/70’s vibe highlighting the postmodern era.

The image is by an artist called Sam Chirnside.

‘Blurring the line between physical and digital practice, his artwork has been described as “A mixing of natural elements with cosmic & spiritual phenomena that aims to delve beyond the edges of consciousness, exploring areas of order & incomprehension.”’ – Quote from his website. (2)

This is my second image, it is by the same artist. When looking into his work I learnt about his practice and was particularly drawn to his website design, I found this to be very relevant to my personal interests as during my A-Level I looked into inks and how inks blend together when dropping them into water. The image captured is a freeze fame of his website front page that uses motion to show moving flowing inks. Image (3)

The second designer that I looked into is the Graphic Designer David Carson.

He uses type and bold coloured shapes to create famous outlines of products. In this image, he has stuck to the branding colours of Pepsi, red white and blue. The text on the ‘can’ all suggests that the drink can help you ‘have fun’.

I especially like how symmetrical the can is and how the type is central aligned meaning that the type is formatted to fit the outline of the can perfectly.The words highlighted in red make sense on their own however when you read them together, ‘i wanna, be young, have fun’ they also reveal another meaning.

Tate. 2017. Postmodernism – Art Term | Tate. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/p/postmodernism. [Accessed 19 November 2017]. (1) Text

CHIRNSIDE. 2017. Home – CHIRNSIDE. [ONLINE] Available at: http://samchirnside.com. [Accessed 19 November 2017]. (2) Quote

CHIRNSIDE. 2017. Home – CHIRNSIDE. [ONLINE] Available at: http://samchirnside.com.. [Accessed 19 November 2017]. (3) image

jinu1025. 2017. David Carson | jinu1025. [ONLINE] Available at: https://jinu1025.wordpress.com/2014/09/15/david-carson/. [Accessed 19 November 2017] (4) Image.