Appropriation (Remix Culture)

Remix Culture in the Digital Age

Appropriation

Analysis of Two Postmodern Art Pieces

Sands and Shapes of Karlskrona

An analysis of two postmodern art pieces dabbed “Sands and Shapes of Karlskrona” The analysis points out some of the postmodern point of views in our everyday life as cultured people that we barely consciously recognize, In a postmodern work of art one of the most important elements are the thoughts behind the art, since we already live in a postmodern era, we are surrounded by postmodern ways of doing thing though we might not be conscious of them, therefore in my analysis am going to focus on the art pieces but dominantly on the thoughts behind the art works themselves.

                                                                 

A postmodern art exhibition work by Yuka and Emma, Yuka worked with sand, paint, paper and a photograph of a landscape while Emma worked with digitally printed maps on paper, drawing pen, and glue.  In the two works of art there were clear differences in material and style though they both belong to the same genre.  One can say that they both incorporated deep thoughts into their work, making it unique of a kind and gives the viewer a lot of windows to think through.

Yuka's Art

According to Yuka, her work of art is a sand painting which is based on a photo taken in Karlskrona. Although it is a painting of a coastal landscape in Karlskrona, it can be seen as a view of any small port town or even a nonexistent place which questions our ways of representing the world. Sand used for her painting were gathered from the shore in Karlskrona.  Denotatively her art peace is an bstract image of a previous photograph that has been appropriated into an abstract form, this raise a question about the material used, for instance the sand though it was collected from Karlskrona who knows where it really came from and how long it has been there. Photos surrounding the painting shows the stages of material use during the painting process this connotes the era of modernism and the final work, is abstract and postmodern. Her work connotes a sense of time not being defined and the materials used cannot be linked to a specific place because the sand that was used in her work could be from hundred different locations though she collected it from one location It might have been washed offshore from several locations around the world and has gathered there at the locations she collected it from. The paint she used in the same way might have been made through gathering of resources all over the world to put it together as paint and the finish product the paint is linked to one country which is not right neither is it wrong.   Considering the process of creating the art piece she did incorporated a sense of not having a define objective of what her work will look like,  it just happened by chance that she ended up with a work that was abstract and also a  parody of the original image she build on.  

Emma's Art

Emma in the other hand also had a very interesting pieces of art, consisting of three maps of Karlskrona, which have been painted on and then shaped into three different shapes, according to Emma, “each shape creates different messages of how Karlskrona can be viewed. Looking at the pieces from a postmodern perspective it holds a very subjective concept of pastiche. It also combines digital and analogous art which is then displayed as a sculpture. The paint on the maps or sculptures represent emotions or places connected to the intended meanings of the shapes and her inspiration was from the modern way of looking at everyday life”.  Considering Emma´s work the material she used which it the printed map and then painted on it and sculptured it into shapes shows the mixing of three different media putting together as one (draw, print and sculpt),  the mixing is a kind of bricolage and can be termed postmodern because it includes digital, analog, and hand crafted art.  Also the shapes, orbit, cube and house shows deep thought because it indicate that firstly a map doesn’t have to be only an orbit or flat form but can also be in the shape of a square , house or other shapes and still be a map . For instance if you use a particular house as a landmark and also use it to find your way around, that house is your map as well, maps are everywhere and the episteme of map being flat is being critiqued by his work, maps don’t have to be flat or in a particular way to be termed maps these thoughts make the art work postmodern.  We could as well explain further that the colors she incorporated in her work, doesn’t necessarily have to be connected to emotions but rather connected to the map, that various places can be connected to some specific colors due to the kind of people that live there or the profession of the people that live there considering Sweden’s less use of color connecting people and places with very bright colors could create a parody for the locations,   i.e. mimic the dislike for colors in Karlskrona society.

 In comparing the two art pieces, I would say they both had deep thoughts, Yuka´s worked didn’t have a clear sense of direction and the finish product was not predefined in thoughts which is an added advantage in what postmodernism stands for, while Emma work shows from a stand point that, maps don’t have to only show us where we want to go but can also be used as objects of expressing emotions, The discourse of flatness doesn’t have to be but rather it can be shaped in which ever form with different meanings and still serve the purpose of a map. This is a perfect postmodernist way of doing things and thinking, there is nothing as the truth but rather there are many aspects of what the truth is.

Cultures ways of defining what truth or right is, is, something that has many negotiations, the notion of truth or right doesn’t have a clear directions or purpose as culture or modernity possess it to be.