Postmodernism is a movement that developed during the mid- to late 20th century to mark the departure of modernism. While Postmodermism does entail a broad range of ideas it is typically consisted of skepticism and irony.
Shepard Fairey’s “Wake Up” illustration was so impactful it caught my eye quite quickly. Perhaps it was the propaganda style of design or it could’ve been how flat the image is that there’s a sense of depth to it. There’s minimal colour used here, however the rich red that’s been placed at the base of the design brings the illustration and even the idea that’s trying to be presented forward quite significantly.
George and Gilbert’s work here consists of a photograph over a double page spread depicting two men in suits smiling and sitting on grass. The controversial spectacle of the work is within the text that’s stuck over their chests. They used obscene words to summarise themselves and did it in a fashion where it seems out of place and unorthodox being that the environment and atmosphere is positive and the text used is negative.
I took an interest to this photographic piece of work as it really demonsrates the fact The there are no limits within postmodernism work and there is nothing that could be defined as offensive or controversial. These ideologies are really emphasised here in this image.
David Carson’s “Hanging out at Carmine Street” is definitely the most interesting out of the three postmodernism pieces I found. Carson understands the laws of postmodernism, the laws being that there are none. The typography used has entirely been altered and placed about in a completely unorthodox manner to the point of that its almost unreadable.
The way the imagery used ties in with what the text is actually trying to tell you is unique because it’s almost as if you need to the image to understand the text and you then need the text to understanding the image.
Shepard Fairey – “Silent Majority”
(http://www.blackbookgallery.com/store/shepard-fairey-prints/)
George and Gilbert – “George the cunt and Gilbert the shit”
(http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/gilbert-george-george-the-cunt-and-gilbert-the-shit-ar00170)
David Carson – “Hanging out at Carmine Street”
(http://aeqai.com/main/2014/01/postmodern-publication-design/)