Project: Essay 2

I believe the more you do something, the less frightening it becomes if you fail because you start to realize that the process is more important than the outcome.

-Anna Arsiriy

Being an older student, I lately came to the conclusion that there is an existential moment in my life when I must decide what I will be doing with my life. I used to tell my husband that “I am in my mid 20s and I still don’t know who I want to be when I grow up”. Even though I was joking, I constantly felt that I have to love what I do and do what I love. As simple as that.

Let me start from the very beginning. I was born and raised in Kazan, Russia. There were two turning points in my life’s path. First one was during my adolescence period. Since I was six, I’ve been professionally playing piano, so after elementary school my parents and music teachers decided that my future has no other option but to be connected with a pianist career. It’s ironic when you are a kid, the more you succeed in something, the more your parents “predefine” your future for you. Long story short, being in a very restricted environment with no choices left, I came to a breaking point and said “no” to music career.

I refused going to a Conservatory, and instead graduated high school with honors and became a student at Kazan National Research Technical University. In June 2011, I was qualified as a Bachelor of Engineering and Technology. I moved to the United States when I was 21 right after I graduated – this was a second major turning point. I came to the U.S. by myself with zero in my pocket, very poor English speaking skills, and no one there by my side.

Even though I successfully accomplished my degree in Russia, I always knew that Engineering does not line my bag of interests. Unfortunately, there are not so many schools in Russia that actually study Art as an independent major. Now, when I live and study in the U.S., the country of thousands of opportunities and tons of creativeness, I’ve been constantly pushing myself out of my comfort zone. This fall of 2017, I transferred to PSU from Bucks County Community College where I got my basic knowledge of 2D and 3D design fundamentals. Even though it is my second degree, I feel that I have never had so much passion to study as I do now!

After graduation from Penn State, I am planning to proceed my professional career as an artist in new Media, including Graphic and Web design, as well as relatively new field in Interactive Interior Design. I don’t like writing much about what my art is about, let alone giving directions/clues to a spectator because my art is open to any interpretations. My work (and my life in general) is not based on theory and moral, but rather on my own inner impulses which tell me where to go and why. Even though it may sound pretty generalized, I will keep working, creating, and achieving my goal as long as love and art are walking by my side.

On November 12, I visited the Museum of Modern Art in New York City which had a variety of fascinating exhibition of American contemporary artists. I concentrated my attention on the performance/installation called Reanimation 2010/2012/2013 by Joan Jonas, which was located in the Museum’s fourth-floor collection galleries. I intentionally called this exhibition as a performance or installation since it incorporated huge custom screens with four running videos, two wooden theater boxes with video, multiple ink and china marker drawings, two benches, and intricate crystal sculpture.

Jonas has often explored the possibilities of video and performance combination, thus her work largely occupies space. As a viewer, I had a sense of walking into this dark magical space experiencing some kind of a three-dimensional fantasy. “Its interwoven elements draw on the nonlinear qualities of Japanese Noh theater and on Icelandic white Halldor Laxness’s 1968 novel Under the Glacier, in which a young man is sent to investigate paranormal activity surrounding a glacier” (from the text on the wall). In fact, all videos of glaciers were captured by Jonas herself while she was investigating the glacial melt of Arctic Circle in Iceland. On the screens, images of severe snowy conditions, mountains, animals, and fish raises the message of the impact of human activities and invincible ecological processes on the Earth.

This multimedia installation was outstanding to me because as in many contemporary (after Post-modernism period) performances Jonas provided a sensory experience through videos, audios, drawings, and sculpture. To sum up, illustrating a glacial melt on one screen, listening to piano playing and capturing enigmatic sense of this performance, the essential message on the other screen shows that “Time is the one thing we can all agree to call supernatural”.

WORK CITED

“Reanimation 2010/2012/2013”. Collection Galleries, Floor 4. Museum of Modern Art. 11 W 53rd St, New York, NY 10019. 12 Nov. 2017.

Scott, Andrea K. “Joan Jonas’s Mythopoetic Vision.” The New Yorker, The New Yorker, 18 June 2017, www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/05/29/joan-jonas-mythopoetic-vision.

“Joan Jonas | Performance Drawing from Reanimation, Tate Live 2013, Tate Modern (2013) | Artsy.” Artsy – Discover, Research, and Collect the World’s Best Art Online, 2017, www.artsy.net/artwork/joan-jonas-performance-drawing-from-reanimation-tate-live-2013-tate-modern#!

Module 5

Postmodernism has been around for a long period of time. Starting in the 1960’s, it is one of the few theories that has been with artists for around a half century. People say Postmodernism is dead now, whereas I think that each theory/movement/style is a reaction to a previous one. In contemporary terms, Pomo evolved into an “updated version” instead of completely “dying”, just like any other previous movement. At the same time, we would definitely not define Pomo as a contemporary condition because of the immense changes happened in the last half-century!

The events which started happening at the dawn of the 20^th century caused a shift, or I would even say a crucial “update”. In his article The Death of Postmodernism And Beyond, Alan Kirby says that “…somewhere in the late 1990s or early 2000s, the emergence of new technologies re-structured, violently and forever, the nature of the author, the reader and the text, and the relationships between them” (philosophynow.org). Moreover, the rate of change has accelerated exponentially. Not only the invention of the Internet and new technologies, but also events such as 9/11, war of civilization, “dot-com bubble” in the U.S., globalization, etc. caused a possibility of a new (perhaps “officially unnamed yet”) state we live in.

I don’t believe we need Post-postmodernism. If Postmodernism is a rejection of Modernism, does it mean that Post-postmodernism is a return to Modernism (two negatives resolving to a positive)? Certainly, it is not the case which makes me think why should we call our times Post-postmodernism and associate it with Modernism in general? Perhaps, our descendants would create another “names” in not too distant future, and hopefully they would not call themselves as “post-post-…-postmodernists”.

I enjoyed reading the article of Daniel Green called Pre and Post Post-Modern: Art in a Globalized World, which states that “much art after postmodernism attempts to create an experience, and typically one not purely visual” (thinkingofnew.blogspot.com). I completely agree with this statement since I have noticed myself that the majority of art nowadays attempts to create an experience rather than simply “showing” a piece. The perception and evaluation of visual art has changed tremendously since emerging of the Internet. Even though direct visual experience is not comparable with digital, still everyone today has a chance to go online and “visit” any exhibition without leaving his/her room. Too many things became publicly available which caused a shift in aesthetic appreciation.

As an example, the exhibition called AllTURNatives: Form + Spirit 2017 I visited back in September (see Gallery #1 Photo Essay as of 09/21/17) featured a work of seven contemporary artists, who were able to create a fun experience for a viewer. Their work provided visual, audible, tactile, and other sensory experiences which encouraged visitors to explore the importance of direct interaction with a piece.  

Daniel Fishkin, the inventor of the Daxophone, was one of those seven featured artists.  His famous sound installation Tinnitus Suites investigates the aesthetics of hearing damage, which cannot be described just visually.

(dfiction.com)

This picture does not really explain anything to a viewer. Similar to Green’s conversation about Phillipsz’ Lowlands, Fishkin’s Tinnitus Suites “ is an experience which can be represented but not reproduced”.

(vimeo.com)

To sum up, postmodernism is an important theory in art. Whether post-postmodernism is needed or not, our time is the time of change. The culture and technology, as well as art in a modern world, have ever changing trends that cannot and must not be predicted. Pomo comes with the “death of meaning”, “death of art”, skepticism, irony, distrust of the grand narrative, and so on. As a result, “the death of the death of art” has washed over the past and created its own universe, perhaps officially unnamed as of today.

WORK CITED:

Kirby, Alan. “The Death of Postmodernism And Beyond.” Philosophy Now: a Magazine of Ideas, Alan Kirby, 2006, philosophynow.org/issues/58/The_Death_of_Postmodernism_And_Beyond.

Green, Daniel. “On The Contemporary.” Pre and Post Post-Modern: Art in a Globalized World, Daniel Green, 12 Sept. 2011, thinkingofnew.blogspot.com/2011/09/pre-and-post-post-modern-art-in.html.

Fishkin, Daniel. “Composing the Tinnitus Suites (2014).” D. Fiction, D. Fiction, 2017, dfiction.com/composing-the-tinnitus-suites-2014/.

Fishkin, Daniel, director. Composing the Tinnitus Suites: 2014 (Excerpts). 28 Mar. 2014, vimeo.com/90383414.