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A Radical Perspective

One of Postmodern Art's important contributions to art history is cheek. Actually, there are two, the right side and left, with a bit in-between; let's say that there are 2 1/2 contributions. But, that doesn't belie that postmodern art is simple, far from it.

There are several underlying ground rules that need to be met for a truly successful PM work. The  force of the recent exhibition of Marco Evaristti inspired me to see if I could come up with a new medium for artistic expression and, at the same time, solve many of these PM requirements: the use of temporal means; the use the body of the artist in some fashion; reference an aspect of mass production; use unorthodox mediums; and use the natural combustion of one's spontaneous genius.

As you might imagine, solving these demands is no easy feat.

PM artists have come up with following unorthodox mediums: liposuction fat (Evaristti, above); straw (Kiefer); human excrement (Manzoni); elephant excrement (Ofili); urine (Serrano); blood (Quinn); islands, buildings, trees, etc. (Christo); rocks (Smithson); earth (Turrell); toe nail clippings (Jones); sperm (Meste); Vaseline (Barney); mayonnaise, hotdogs, ketchup (McCarthy).

It may seem extreme for these PM artists to go to such lengths, but there is a part of me that really pushes for them.

My thoughts are going along the lines that it is absolutely imperative that a postmodernist use a medium that is unique to art, yet, is common to the human experience. The result should be temporal. Here today, gone tomorrow kind of stuff. Piffft, piffft. Something that bypasses argument, yet cannot be questioned. And something that is distasteful--an important PM quality. That's it! Flatulence. Canned flatulence. Yes. Flatulence d' Artista. No wait, don't go off dismissing my idea too quickly. I think this has merits.

Think about it:

1) It's immediately temporal, it instantly dissipates, there is no waiting around for weeks on end for a Christo project to come down or for Merde d' Artista to decompose.

2) It uses the body as a stool, oops, I mean a tool of artistic expression.

3) It's a unique medium, and so minimalist that it's totally transparent. There is no painting white on white. In fact, way beyond that it is almost nothing. Yet it leaves an unmistakable suggestion of our experiencing it, experiencing something subliminal, and, depending on the taste and the good sense of the audience, something sublime.

4) It's mass produced, or at least it has the reference of being mass produced. And it is something that every human has experienced and produced, yet they have never thought of as art, until now.

5) Lastly, it's a natural force of one's expressive genius. No explanation needed. After all, Kant has said that: "[Genius] cannot indicate scientifically how it brings about its product, but rather gives the rule as nature." Genius in art is an explosive force with no thought about its coming about.

And this artwork is interactive. Say some boorish acquaintance comes along and fills your space with thoughts that smell suspiciously of universals, standards, heroism in art, and oil paint! You get out your can of Flatulence d' Artista, piffft, piffft. This lets him know exactly the position you take on that! Piffft, piffft, pifffffft.

So when it comes to Postmodern Art, be clever and use a little cheek, or even better use the left and the right, and the bit in-between. Wink, wink.

Michael Newberry
New York, June 2007

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