What’s this, what’s this? It’s what I’d like to know. (yeah I know, sorry I’m a rubbish photographer, I forgot my camera all weekend, no photos from the sunny lovely day.)
We have been confronted with a new project at uni, and it is called “Post postmodernism”. This term does actually not excist, it is a term our tutors have invented. I think it’s an inside joke amongst the tutors, ven though half of them doesn’t seem to understand it themselves.
We had a lecture on whet “Modernism” was and that we are now in the “Postmodern” era (according to some). The project is for our tutors to see if we can cope with short and intense projects and if we know what kind of time we are living in.
Basically Modernism was the beginning of a mish mash style, where everything was possible. We could combine the previous styles as we wanted and no body would complain. Then we moved into the Post modern era where people stated to complain about the art being too thought through and personal, so they started stripping everything from art and minimalizing it as much as possible, until one day they realised that there was nothing left and that art is personal. Art is meant to touch and provoke, not to just be there and occupy space. An anti-modernist era, that’s what postmodernism is, even though some say we’re still in the era of Modernism.
I think what out tutors mean with the fab project is that we have even passed through the postmodern era and are now in the Post postmodern era. They just coulden’t be asked to come up with a better name for it.
So what is now? We’ve gone past the mishmash period of all styles cramped together, we’ve gone past the minimalist period where everything was broken down to it’s absolute basic form, so..where are we now?
Wht do we do now? Go back to the sensibe art times when art was just art? When no body cared if it was super persona or just pretty. Well, I can’t imagina what post postmodernism would be so therefor I will concentrate on simply postmodernism, the era we’re still in.
Medusa by Caravaggio
I found this amazing drawing of Medusa by Anthony Frederick Sandys (not the one above) where she’s staring out of the page with the coldest, most evil look I have ever seen. As soon as I saw this image I felt shivers go down my spine and I new that this was the image I wanted to remake. I want to use myself as the model and make my hair into poisongreen dreads. Color y face greenish and paint some sort of flowery vine over half my face. Later when I’ve taken the image (only a headshot) I will print it out on canvas (if we have any left up at uni) and paint the snakes onto the canvas.
I don’t know if this is actually what I will be doing, but at the moment it’s what is strongest, visually, in my mind. And since we only have two weeks to complete this project I will have to start shooting very soon.
I am not doing this selfportrait as a Gorgone because I feel particulary close to Medusa, or I feel that I am very much like her, no I am solely doing it because I think it would turn out to be a wicked image. If I was to do a portrait that would describe me as a person I would have to portray myself as a siren. And that would mean that I would have to be naked, outside, by the lake, and for some reason I really don’t feel like going down by the Medway river and sitting there naked with all the swans, whilst trying to take an image. Although that could turn out to be a cool image in the end. I’ll have to do that one day somewhere where it’s a bit safer and I won’t be so serverely exposed to the world.
Well, hopefully I will be testshooting tomorrow. Wish me luck!
