My Phd concerns the role of satire within painting under the auspices of Altermodernism. Altermodern is the new term the French curator Nicolas Bourriaud proposed for understanding our present. The recent Tate Triennial (London, February-April, 2009) was devoted to consecrating, or at least putting this concept into circulation. In the introduction to the catalogue Nicolas Bourriaud wrote:
“The terms ‘MODERN,’ ‘POSTMODERN,’ ‘ALTERMODERN’ do not define styles (save as ways of thinking), but here represent tools allowing us to attribute times-scales to cultural eras.” (16)
Therefore, our contemporary culture would be, according to Bourriaud, that of the Altermodern. The term attempts to “delimit the void after the Postmodern.” (12) The words for the catalogue, and even the whole show, are a sort of avant-garde manifesto, in which the definition of Altermodern is displayed, demonstrated through the artworks and other supplementary texts and discussions. Altermodern would be a sort of constellation, in which art “needs to reinvent itself in a planetary scale.”(12)
At the risk of simplifying Bourriaud’s description of the present a little bit, his viewpoints could be summarised as follows: 1) In our cultural era, art is heterotopic. It goes beyond nationalities, immersed in global dialogues and creolisation. contemporary art is essentially a hybrid. It is related to the experiences of migration, displacement, exile, and traveling to the point that “trajectories become forms.” 2) As a result, there is a fragmentation of the work of art, whose unity consists in being a network, a collective creation, or a process that generates forms. 3) Contemporary art assumes heterochrony. That means, it wanders through history, unable to understand time – as Modernity did – as a lineal progression, or conceive of it as an exhaustion, in which history and meta narratives come to an end (as it was perceived from the postmodern perspective). In the Altermodern, there are multiple experiences of time (Bourriaud mentions anachronism, delay, anticipation, and the immediate) coexisting in a sort of web, articulating meanings with the purpose of revealing the present. 4) Contemporary art is a displacement of signs, in which materials are interconnected, developing a chain of references that are dialoguing with each other in order to produce a narrative, and in which storytelling plays a main role. 5) Altermodern is marked by exodus, by deterritorialisation, and the nomadic. Staying away from traditions, the new art turns to a strategic universalism, creating a language which goes beyond nationalisms, or regionalisms.
The Tate Triennial illustrated all these points through the display of artworks and debates devoted to the postcolonial world, exodus, and travel. The series of pictures shown by Rachel Harrison are a good example of these Altermodern practices. In Voyage of the Beagle, Harrison worked in a series of portraits that starts and ends with images of menhirs. The pictures are suggesting the idea of a circular journey (Kelsey, 2009). It is also a planetary voyage, a trajectory through signs, and history – including allusions to the future, as depicted by science fiction – since the portraits are references to cultural icons taken from all over the world, from mass-media images to avant-garde sculpture, from classic statues to African masks. The title Voyage of the Beagle was taken from the memoirs of Charles Darwin’s expeditions to the coasts and islands of South America. The title proposes an analogy between today’s global world (which the artist traveled through the images) and archipelagos. That fits Bourriaud’s intentions perfectly. In fact, he also uses the archipelago as a metaphor for the present:
“Here we are back with the image of the archipelago: instead of aiming at a kind of summation, Altermodernism sees itself as a constellation of ideas linked by the emerging and ultimately irresistible will to create a form of modernism for the twenty-first century.”(12)
However, Voyage of the Beagle could be seen as well as an example of the postmodern aesthetic. The travel through space, signs, and history is related to postmodern strategies of parody, pastiche, and transvestism. In one of Harrison’s pictures, what seems to be a Japanese mask evokes Elvis Presley’s face; in another one, Gertrude Stein is portrayed in the manner of Buddha representations. It is hard to delimit heterotopy and heterochrony from postmodern artistic appropriation. All the references are aiming to produce a carnivalesque effect. As in carnivals, the idea of the mask, zoomorphism, wigs, disguises, corny crowns, and kitsch figurines can be found everywhere in Voyage of the Beagle. The two levels of reading enunciated by Charles Jencks – the eclecticism, and the use of kitsch with artistic intentions – which typify the postmodern aesthetic, are quite notorious in Harrison’s pictures.
Rather than evidence of an Altermodern stage, Voyage of the Beagle could suggest that the theoretical hypothesis launched by the Tate Triennial lacks further development. It can be argued that, as Bourriaud says, neither postmodern nor Altermodern are styles, so the same artwork features could be interpreted in one way or the other. However, after reading the catalogue, the difference between what Bourriaud sees as a “time scale of a cultural era” and the postmodern remains unclear, and it even seems to be supported by aspects that were already noticed by many theoreticians of the seventies and eighties.
The concept of art as heterotopia, for instance, was already circulating by the late eighties. In his book Hybrid Cultures (1989), Néstor García Canclini noticed that Latin American modernity was not only about national borders, ethnicities, and class distinctions. Latin American modernity was also an experience in which the sociocultural frontiers were erased, mixed, and interwoven, producing what Canclini called hybrid cultures. Postmodernism was not just a nostalgic complaint about the death of almost everything, but it was also a moment of travel and displacement. In his essay “Dall’utopia all’eterotopia” (1989) Gianni Vattimo used the word heterotopia in order to describe a universal and communitarian culture.1
When Bourriaud talks about the generalisation of the hypertext (one sign directs us to a second, then a third, creating a chain of mutually interconnected forms), he seems to describe what was one of the main topics of postmodernism, which was strongly associated with intertextuality and the use of old signs with a new logic (Foster, 1984).
Postmodernim is over. Postmodernism is dead. Since 1989, if not earlier, some scholars and art critics have been arguing about the need for going beyond the term, not to mention the ones who, from the very beginning, remained skeptical about the word. There is no doubt that the debate about postmodernism was already fading away during the early nineties. Still, attempts to define this concept not only produced a significant amount of seminal texts about the emergence of a new sensibility and a new system of cultural production, but also, in a broader sense, they succeeded in creating a distinction between a previous past (modernism), and a new cultural moment (postmodernism). As Fredric Jameson has observed, from aesthetics to economics, from social relations to science, fashion and ideology, postmodernism has affected every single aspect of society (1999). Is this postmodernism, understood as a cultural dominant, actually over? Can we talk about a qualitatively different cultural stage? If so – and this is already arguable even though it seems globalisation is generating a new set of complexities – how can we define this cultural present?
Globalisation is an unprecedented phenomenon, and Bourriaud is trying to explore how it has transformed cultural production. This was the main – provocative and speculative – challenge of the show at the Tate Triennial. However, in my opinion, as a theoretical hypothesis, the description of the new term fails to establish a differentiation from the postmodern.
What if, by now, the death of postmodernism is, paradoxically, one of the many death certificates issued by the postmodern? Néstor García Canclini is cautious about the idea of labelling the new cultural moment with just a single word. Perhaps the new cultural developments cannot be subsumed in a system yet, at least not without falling back into postmodernism’s webs. In the end, we are not that far from postmodernism, and perhaps the new cultural era is still about to come, showing new symptoms, or new signs, but without being born yet, still germinating in its mother’s womb.
Bourriaud, Nicolas. “Altermodern.” Altermodern, Tate Triennal. London: Tate Publishing, 2009.
Kelsey, John. “Rachel Harrison.” Altermodern, Tate Triennial London: Tate Publishing, 2009: 114.
Foster, Hal. “Re:Post.” Art after Modernism: Rethinking Representation. Ed. Brian Wallis. New York:
The New Museum of Contemporary Art, 1984.
Jameson, Fredric. Postmodernism, or The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Durham, North Carolina:
Duke University Press, 1999.
Original interview here Q1. Could you please share some insights into your personal and artistic journey? What specific experiences and motivations have shaped you into the individual you are today? I am now in my early 50’s. I began drawing and painting from a very young age, I can remember drawing before primary school. All my life I have had a compulsion to create. Life has created barriers to this creativity, however, I persisted as it was a part of me, and I had to do it to fulfill creative urges. I believe an artist is born not made. Genetically predisposed. Many people dislike this view, and it can be met with great hostility. Indeed, contemporary art through the critics such as Clement Greenberg have discounted the notion of the unique artist, dispelling concepts of innate talent, as elitist, and arrogence on the part of the artist who must therefore believe they are special and unique. I find this idea personally affronting. I am what I am. I have a natural ability, I was made this way. I didnt have the best of starts in life, not unlike many people. I came from a working class family, we had the basics of existence. We lived on council estates, we moved a lot when I was a boy so never gained friends and always felt insecure. I left the family home when I was 15 due to an abusive step dad, and a divorce that precipitated my mother leaving. I was homeless for 18 months. I had to learn how to survive very quickly. I was variousely employed, mostly farms, building sites, factories, working class, mundane jobs. I also had periods of unemployment. I drew and painted constantly throughout this time, I travelled through many bedsits. I alwys maintained my artwork in various forms. When I was 21 I entered university on the strength of my artwork that I produced at the interview. University changed my life, it was a culture shock after being on building sites, very civilised. I was quite rough around the edges. My BA was in Graphic Design/illustration. My MA (which I accomplished over ten years later, was in Illustration. I managed to find an illustration agent when I completed my BA. Over a two year period I completed many briefs for national and international clients. I met my future wife at university. The in laws, didn't believe the creative industries were financially sustainable for their daughters future happiness. They encouraged me to retrain. I subsequently embarked on a psychiatric nursing degree (4 years training) When completed I was employed by the private health care system, I worked in the community for various trusts and then into the NHS. I was employed in a forensic high secure hospital for the criminally insane for 5 years. It changed me forever. As a homeless person I had experienced trauma, however, After reading hundreds of patient histories, It made me realise just how widespread the personal and societal dysfunctionality is. Long story short, I lost everything, my wife, house, and employment as a qualified nurse. I ended up back in a bedsit, with seemingly no hope and no future. It took a long while building myself back. One of the positive things about learning life early is that your ‘fight’ remains with you. I am a very determined person, dogmatically so, I posess a very strong personal drive. To be able to teach I required a PHD, and so here I am. I always avoided the fine art education route myself. All I could see was conceptual art. Very little painting and mostly abstracted or deconstructed to varying degrees. I was always a figurative painter, as far back as I can remember, all the artists that influenced me, and that I admired, where figurative painters. Satire has always been part of my life, I just didn't know or understand the concept until I was older. I understand now, that a satirical catalyist describes my life experience. I also know that satire is an extremely powerful tool. I added painting as vehicle, and autoethnography as driver. Q2. How do you incorporate satire into your paintings to convey powerful messages to your audience? Could you also shed light on your creative process when bringing a finished artwork to life? My personal and professional ethos encorperates egalitarian principles. Everyone is equal, Art (painting) is for everyone, not just an elite few. In this respect, the aim of my work is accessiblity, I wish my work to be easily read. Satire’s codes offer a vehicle for relationality through universality. Codes such as, parody, analogy, metaphor, and subversion, and universally recognised signs, icons, and graphics, can be utilised to inject a powerful means of communication. I also use the universality of humour. I do this in a number of ways, through comical characterisation, a focus on primary colours to accentuate the ‘cartoon’ aesthetic, and I utilise design principles such as space, perspective, perceived motion, and depth to create a satirical narrative. I view my work not unlike a cartoon animation film still, an episode captured in time. I do have video content on you tube which describes my process it can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmGXwgqNRfzWuvqQ7lGzvVQ Q3.In your statement, you mentioned that your art goes "above and beyond present contemporary multimedia and modern art’s theoretical ideation." Can you deconstruct these ideas for us? Satire tends to be circumscribed by a limited understanding of media in which it can be realised. It appears that a majority of people assume that Satire only exists through the doctrines of political cartooning and amateur memes. However, the common experience of painting has affect through emotive response. The aesthetic judgement is that whose determining ground lies in a sensation that is immediately connected with a feeling of pleasure and displeasure. I understand that painting is a unique vehicle. A painting's uniqueness underlies its status as a precious object. The singularity, preciousness, and longevity of the painted picture continue to have a latent resonance in painting’s contemporary status, painting is a high art, a universal art, a liberal art, an art through which we can achieve transcendence and catharsis. Painting is a great unbroken tradition that encompasses the entire known history of man. The expressive warmth and subjectivity of painting, opposed to the cold functionality of the digital image, which serves primarily as a vehicle of information. In contrast to the rapidity, ubiquity, and ease of digital reproduction, the labour of painting and the comparative slowness of execution gives it a singularity that lifts it out of the unending flow of media images. Satire can continue to illicit credence through the specificity of paintings vitalistic vernaculars. Painting has persisted despite innumerable efforts to negate it. Most explicitly, from the post-war period onward, painting has been fractured, deconstructed, and reconstructed again. Illustrated by the retreat from medium specificity, in the 1970’s, a move largely made in opposition to the hegemonic force of Greenbergian formalism and the expanded field. Painting was killed by revolutions, it was killed by commodities; it was killed by flatness, and it was killed by sheer boredom, but repeatedly it was resurrected only to die another day. This is painting’s modern tragedy: a modern form of history painting. Painting is based upon an intrinsic aesthetic, a pleasurable commodity, Painting operates in the realm of sensual and affective qualities. However, Modernism is opposed to the notion of painting as a pleasurable commodity. Among the traditional distinctions shed by art after Modernism were the specifications of genres and media. This condition of ‘post-modern art’ has acquired titles such as the ‘dematerialized art object’ (Lucy Lippard); ‘Intermedia’ (Dick Higgins) and the ‘post-medium condition’ (Rosalind Krauss). The loss of this distinction between art and ‘life’ meant a corresponding loss of certainty about what the rightful object of aesthetics actually was. (Best, S. Halsall, F. J, O’Connor. 2006) Postmodernism neither brackets nor suspends the allegory referent but works instead to problematize its reference. I would argue that the heterogeneity of art necessitates a return to the importance of auto ethnographic practice. Artists may be aware of the codices of visual aesthetics and may utilise this knowledge to apportion meaning through allegorical narratives. Allegorical narratives will remain a failure to read unless an understanding of the universality of visual language is employed to elicit accessibility, readability and moral empathy. My project frames painting practice as fitting in relation to our erratic times as it intrinsically holds within it, abundant possibilities for examining feelings of change and variance, expressively, materially, and idiomatically. Painting has a history of re-invention, and, so, in support of this, I contend that rectification in painting is continuously revealed culturally, materially, and through the vehicle of painting's vernaculars. Painting is both reflective and reactive. Graw postulates; ‘Painting is its context’ painting has sustained itself by internalising socially constructed values.’ However, Joselit asserts that; ‘painting is ‘beside itself’, transitivity is a form of translation; when it enters networks, paintings are submitted to infinite dislocations, fragmentations and degradations, as Kippenberger suggested, these framing conditions cannot be quarantined, painting is beside itself.’ (Joselit 2013). Owens argument manifests mediation, particularly regarding allegory; ‘Painting is palimpsestuous, in having been reused or altered while still retaining traces of its earlier form; ‘A multilayered record, the withdrawal of the modernist arts from allegory may thus be one factor in their ever-accelerating loss’ (Owens. 1980) How do you perceive the current political and social atmosphere, and what are your thoughts on its impact? Furthermore, where do you believe art stands amidst these global changes and modifications? The world is in Perma crisis. Defined as an extended period of instability and insecurity, and illustrated through dysfunctional World politics, multi-societal inequalities, and injustices. A constant state of uncertainty and worry, through the upheaval caused by high energy costs and a universal cost of living crisis, world poverty, the covid pandemic, climate change, world societal displacement, heightened migration, and a devastating war in Ukraine showing no sign of de-escalation. Bad news is seemingly everywhere, this is the milieu in which satire exists. I position my work within the alter modern spectrum. Nicholas Bourriaud augmented the term Altermodernism and curated The Tate Britain Tate Triennial in 2009. Presented a collective discussion around the premise that postmodernism was coming to an end, and that we are experiencing the emergence of a global altermodernity. Bourriaud stipulated that the new universality of world cultures marked a world culture shift as opposed to a Colonial west centric criticism attributed to the auspices of both modernism, and postmodernism. Alter modernism offers a multicultural universality defined by creolisation and polyglot expansion. “Contemporary culture can no longer be seen as a single totality, but as an interrelated network, described as an archipelago. Post modernism is dead. A new modernity is emerging, reconfigured to an age of globalisation, understood in its economic, political and cultural aspects: an altermodern culture.” (Bourriaud, N.1998) The Tate biennial exhibition was curated to involve the artists that Bourriaud recognised as fulfilling the new Altermodern agenda. “The art is characterised by artists cross border, cross cultural negotiation; a new real and virtual mobility the surfing of different disciplines, and the use of fiction as an expression of autonomy.” (Bourriaud, N.1998) Alter modernism offers a conduit for the relevance of satire’s pluralism Bourriaud suggests “The alter modern artist produces links between signs far away from each other, explores the past and the present to create original paths” (Bourriaud, N.1998) The linkage of signs conforms to the relational discourse of alter modernity. Semiotically speaking, viewers of art take up positions, adopt attitudes and points of view which are influenced by positions within their own unique set of social relations. Such an ideological positioning involves a specific way of using signs (a semiotic), and a structured sensibility (an aesthetic) both grounded in a particular system of social relations. Alter modernity offers a broad spectrum of social relations, as opposed to the colonial west centricity of postmodernism “Our civilisation, which bears the imprints of a multicultural explosion and the proliferation of cultural strata, awaits transformation into an archipelago, today's mass cultural movements amount to agglomerations that can be described as continental” (Bourriaud, N.1998) Currently, you are pursuing a PhD in painting as satire. Can you tell us how the research is going? What challenges have you found during your PhD journey? The aim of my research is to build a framework for inquiry within satirical painting, to invigorate and inform practice, acknowledging the distinct knowledge of the painter as maker and the confluence of reflection and doing. A practice development is an approach to painting that mobilizes common qualities of experience in a fragmented/divided world. Satire as a vehicle for cathartic intervention. I will promote a pictorial language, utilising the codices of satire to support my research. My critical analysis will enrich my process, the progress will inform my thesis, evidenced through satire, alter modernity, and auto-ethnography. The meaning throughout my work is inherent within both the internal structure of the work and its contextual presentation. I will test and examine satire's meaning through studio and exhibition projects. A body of satirical paintings will enable a confluence between image and observer, and will facilitate discourse, which can then be quantified and evidenced. My practice-led research will utilise self-reflection, drawing upon my own life experiences and discursive engagements with a range of interlocuters (curators, fellow researchers, gallery audiences, etc.) Autoethnography includes the recognition of the ways personal/cultural identities, shape perception, and experience, the importance of narrative storytelling, and the crisis of representation, autoethnographic projects use selfhood, subjectivity, and personal experience to describe, interpret and represent beliefs. Preliminary results have indicated that painting practice produces works to be appreciated for both their inherent painterly conditions. Participant research through intervention, and discourse will directly inform this investigation. I wish to examine how respondents interact with, and interpret my work. I will do this by facilitating painting exhibitions, allowing for the specificity of the voice of the audience/respondent as an exhibitionary component. The voices of the wronged/othered, couple with my own, retaining specificity of opinion of my practice through credence and validation feedback. As an artist it is my decision to take on responsibility for speaking that can be shared in different formats with audience members. Universality, the quality of involving or being shared by all people or things in the world or of a particular group, is the paradigm in which my own practice exists. I have understood that the universality of satirical codes may contribute to a wider acceptance of satire within painting as a mode of expression. I have also discovered that respondents may be encouraged through satire as cathartic intervention, a process I wish to investigate further. My literature review has indicated that a political cartoon, even as it is made by an artist and shares a portion of value things with painting, remains delineated from painting by the fine art establishment. The implications of my findings to date are at odds with an anti-narrative doctrine and, continues to create much consternation within the commodified art world. ‘Painting’s new-found popularity is paradoxically compromised by an expanded but incestuous art market, and through social media platforms, supported by these now naturalised means of transmission, painting is more widely disseminated than ever before, but at the cost of its sensuous materiality and experiential address. My research suggests that the art world views may need to be revisited, especially considering egalitarian principles (art for everyone), and universal accessibility. Artists and their artworks are immersed in the general intellectual and creative environment generated by culture, that affects everyone, and so an understanding of the form, content and meaning of artworks requires an appreciation of the cultural and social context within which they are expressed. My findings relate directly to my original context. The implications of my research postulate a return to representational painting and the resurgence of the satiric mode within paintings specifity. My research has found a new receptive audience in laymen terms, as opposed to the high academic, or person of high social class. It appears that the more an individual is directly affected by satirical issues, there appears to be a greater positive reaction. (Catharism). The positive reception outlines the egalitarian principles behind my work. Everyone is equal, art is for everyone. In this regard I have also found that alter modernism holds great potential for reaching a multicultural audience. The universal codes of satire are omnipresent, and universally understood. Painting’s specifity holds a majority universal appeal. My research project addresses concerns about how collective modes of reception can navigate specific political contestations. I have encountered ethical issues. I have understood that some potentially harrowing imagery may have to be withheld from prospective exhibitions. The universal specifity of satirical painting as a solution to satire consumption remains in question. There remains a requirement for further depth of research and practice testing. How important do you think it is that artists critically create a discourse around social and political issues? What pitfalls can you see on this path? I believe all artists and all art has some intrinsic social conscience. Throughout art history social commentary has been outed. Artists have always looked around them, critiqued their environments and the follies of their fellow man. Artists are inattely guided by a pronounced sensitivity, they are more enclined towards high perceptivity, and intuition, artists are a catalyst for multicomplexual information and visaul aesthetics, that guide their creativity. I beleive it is arts responsibility to act as a conduit for contemporary mass information, indeed, I believe it is an individual artists resonsibility to record their contemporary view for both prosperity, and the wider public good. “Artists are called upon to comment on current social and political issues, artists act as political commentators, and activists for social or environmental issues, it has been used for centuries as a powerful medium for the dissemination of political and religious propaganda” (Mather, G. 2021) My argument throughout my phd is centererd around how painting’s specific vitalistic vanaculars can, and should continue to be, a significant mode of recording contemporary life, and be accepted by the fine art establishment as a return to narrative enquiry, as opposed to current multimedia. I am arguing for the return of the importance of autoethnographic painting, the estranged narrative, and allagorical meaning. I have experienced some ethical issues relating to message orientation and visual strength of meaning. A pitfall may be that potentially harrowing images may require sensitive procurement. Where do you place your artistic research within the current art world? Painting practice is fitting in relation to our erratic times as it intrinsically holds within it, abundant possibilities for examining feelings of change and variance, expressively, materially, and idiomatically. Presenting Satirical painting as alterity through specificity and focusing within the changing cultural framework of Alter modernity, I argue for a refined and nuanced discussion of the utilisation of satirical commentary within the representational painting genre. My literature review so far has indicated that Satirical painting has been, and continues to be, variously unaccepted, with very few practitioners, satire has seemingly held little credibility within the contemporary art world. However, my preliminary results have indicated a new positive reaction in relation to public conception and relationality, which has furthered my resolve for egalitarianism.Through multiple research avenues it has been noted that satire as a subject for painting, has garnered much interest from a broad societal base. Universality, the quality of involving or being shared by all people or things in the world or of a particular group, is the paradigm in which my own practice exists. My research seeks to understand how the lens of alter modernity casts the world. Alter modernity appears to create a broad relational dialogue: “Artwork as social interstice, the possibility of a relational art, the art taking as its theoretical horizon, the realm of human interactions, and its social truths through the auspices of alter modernity. An art form where the substrate is formed by intersubjectivity, the collective elaboration of meaning, that points to a radical upheaval of the aesthetic, cultural an political goals introduced by modern art.” (Bourriaud, N. 2009) . Do you have any new projects coming soon? What can we expect from you? Where can we see your work? My practice is an ongoing affair. Currently I generally complete 20-25 paintings within a 6 month period. I am fortunate enough to be able to formulate ideas for work pretty readeliy. I have an expansive imagination, and often have a number of projects in my ‘minds eye’ waiting their turn. I had a plan to complete 30 paintings of varying sizes by the end of my phd, I am at halfway point now, and I have completed 26. On my website, you can find my current work, I have also included a selection of my past work (differing styles) I regularly post new work to my website, and to all my social media links can be found on my website. Come and say Hello, Facebook in particular is a favourite, I have a lot of academic friends that I regularly have interesting conversations about art. My website: http//:www.johnhoganartist.com My next project is my largest piece yet 7x6’ I will be producing this over the summer. I envisage a 3 month timeframe for completion. I will be producing a video of my process along side conversing about painting and life. Finally, what platform, podcast, or artist would you recommend to our readers? Hundreds of artists have inspired me throughout my life. The contemporary painters that I admire include Neo Rauch, Ken Currie, and Peter Howson. Peter has video content available on you tube that I regularly watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uriXweryUQ8 Original interview here
Dieter Declercq is Lecturer in Film and Media Studies at the University of Kent, UK. Focusing in particular on the existential value of popular media (especially satire, comedy and cartoons), his research is informed by methodologies from analytical aesthetics, media studies, and medical and health humanities. His research has been published in numerous journals, including The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, ImageText, Ethical Perspectives, and Ethical Theory and Moral Practice. Satire, Comedy and Mental Health examines how satire helps to sustain good mental health in a troubled socio-political world. Through an interdisciplinary dialogue that combines approaches from the analytic philosophy of art, medical and health humanities, media studies, and psychology, the book demonstrates how satire enables us to negotiate a healthy balance between care for others and care of self. divBuilding on a thorough philosophical explication and close analysis of satire in various forms - including novels, music, TV, film, cartoons, memes, stand-up comedy and protest artefacts - Declercq investigates how we can harness satirical entertainment to ease the limits of critique. In so doing, the book presents a compelling case that, while satire cannot hope to cure our sick world, it can certainly help us to cope with it. ISBN: 978183906683 Pub: 13 January 2021 Emerald Publishing Ltd
Nicholas Bourriaud: Altermodernism: Tate Triennial
A critical view of painting
The Artist's Joke. Documents of Contemporary Art. Jennifer Higgie. A highly recommended book for art lovers. Part of the acclaimed Documents of Contemporary Art series of anthologies which collects writing on major themes and ideas in contemporary art. Ever since the Dadaists, humour in one or more of its guises- absurd, ironic, tragi-comic, mordant, gothically dark, deadpan, camp, or Kitsch, has frequently surfaced as a subversive, troubling or liberating element in Art. This anthology traces humour's role in transforming the practice and experience of art from the early twentieth century Avant-guards, through Fluxus and Pop, to the diverse, often uncategorisable works of some of the most influential artists today. The title traces the role humour plays in transforming the practice and experience of art, from the early twentieth-century avant-gardes, through Fluxus and Pop, to the diverse, often uncategorisable works of some of the most influential artists today. Artists' writings are accompanied and contextualised by the work of critics and thinkers including Freud, Bergson, Hélène Cixous, Slavoj Žižek, Jörg Heiser, Jo Anna Isaak and Ralph Rugoff, among others. Artists surveyed include Leonora Carrington, Maurizio Cattelan, Marcel Duchamp, Marlene Dumas, Fischli & Weiss, Andrea Fraser, Guerilla Girls, Hannah Höch, Mike Kelley, Martin Kippenberger, Barbara Kruger, Sarah Lucas, Paul McCarthy, Bruce Nauman, Claes Oldenberg, Raymond Pettibon, Francis Picabia, Pablo Picasso, Richard Prince, Arnulf Rainer, Ad Reinhardt, Ed Ruscha, Carolee Schneemann, David Shrigley, Robert Smithson, Annika Ström, Kara Walker and Andy Warhol. Writers include Hugo Ball, Henri Bergson, André Breton, Hélène Cixous, Sigmund Freud, Jörg Heiser, Dave Hickey, Jo Anna Isaak, Ralph Rugoff, Peter Schjeldahl, Sheena Wagstaff, Hamza Walker and Slavoj Žižek. Jennifer Higgie is the co-editor of frieze magazine. She has published writings on such contemporary artists as Ricky Swallow, Magnus Von Plessen and David Noonan. Paperback, 240 pages, 210 x 145 mm ISBN 978 – 085488 – 156 – 7 First published 2007 Around £16.99
I am now in my early 50’s. I have arrived at this juncture in my life via an accumulation of a particular set of circumstances, that have led me personally and professionally to, as I see it, a satirical catalyst. I believe it is necessary to place my reasoning for satire as a vehicle for practice and research within a contextual framework. Beginning with my personal history. I began life as the son of a working-class family. The eventual divorce, and subsequent breakdown of the family unit, led to verbal and physical abuse from a stepfather left on his own with myself after the divorce. I consequently made poor progress at school, and due to the enormous stress at home, I left the family home at 15. I was homeless for 2 years. I eventually found a bedsit to live in, Over the next few years, I was variously unemployed and employed in many manual low paid jobs, from working in factories to building sites to retail. I met a young lady who came from a middle-class family. I was encouraged to progress in life. I managed to gain a place at university BA (Hons) on the strength of my drawing ability. Three years later. I found myself unemployed again. I travelled to London with my A2 portfolio, I remained in London for three days and eventually found an agent. I began work for the agency in the 18 months that followed I successfully completed many professional illustrations to brief for a national and international client base. My success wasn’t looked on favourably by my future in-laws, and so I was encouraged to retrain. I attended nurse training. After 4 years training. I began work as a nurse firstly for the priory hospital 2 years, then onto the NHS. where I was employed as a nurse, within a high secure hospital for the criminally insane for four years. Eventually, the stress of the work and a breakdown in my marriage (together for 18 years, married for 4 years to the initial young lady I had met at the beginning. (We had a year-old baby girl) precipitated my nervous breakdown. I subsequently lost everything, my house, wife, etc. and limited access to my growing daughter. Satire is the only word that adequately describes my current practice. Social inquiry and commentary are implicit to my practice. As an artist /painter, I feel that it is within my remit, and indeed, my duty, to document the world to which I belong. I found that Painting in the fine art sense was fraught with disclaiming ideologies, particularly around the narrative aspects of image-making. I don’t have any limitations as far as my imagination is concerned. I can easily visualise any subject in my mind's eye I can see a whole image in its entirety. During my BA my knowledge broadened, and I understood how and why the media are powerful and influential in informing and socialising a consumerist society. Through my nurse training, I also understood social anthropology, sociology and psychology, encompassing the envirobiopsychosocialspiritual aspects of each individual. The knowledge attained through my nurse training also gave definition to all the questions I had always asked, I understood that we are all socialised and normalised, through our young lives and into adulthood. I understood society's inequalities, I saw the wider picture. This knowledge was expounded upon when I entered life as a qualified mental health nurse. Within the priory hospital I was responsible for conducting anxiety management groups for example. I nursed many professional people such as teachers and Business CEO’s police and fire service personnel, actors and celebrities. In short, I understood that people are vulnerable, from all walks of life, and I also found this to my own personal cost. During my time as a nurse for the NHS, I nursed both inpatients and within the community. I saw first-hand the social inequalities, the disenfranchised, the lost and the broken. I observed social deprivation, both alcohol and illicit drug abuse, child abuse, homelessness, suicide, homicide, and every other conceivable human deprivation. I read hundreds of patient histories and realised the depth of the inadequacy, inequality and social injustice of the normalised society in which we all live. I have always had faith in humanity, believing in a general precedence for good, however, I also understand that humans are fallible, we all possess a darker side, that occasionally, consciously or unconsciously, will out. I also understand that people are mostly a product of their unique experience, and genetics, of course, the whole nature/nurture debate remains unquantified. In reality, man's inhumanity to man, quantified by history, and sustained today, is a reflection of the state of mankind. Satire has a long history at the forefront of social and political commentary in western society https:// www.oxfordartonline.com/page/british-visual-satire-18th-20th-centuries The Language of satire is fed to the masses through the mass media to varying degrees, on an almost daily basis, whether through the newspaper press, and programming through television and radio. Bad news is seemingly everywhere, this is the milieu to which satire exists. And what of the reasoning for a possible cynical viewpoint, that may illicit satirical discourse? The daily news brings us awful atrocities. World politics, and inequalities, war, famine, poverty, disenfranchised communities, infighting, abuse and neglect. Here in the UK, we are bombarded with our own social, political, inequalities, and injustices along with racism, rape, and homicide. Social hypocrisies are rife, the porn industry exists, just as tobacco, alcohol and some minor drugs, because of the financial, political and societal gain through taxation. The internet has changed the landscape of knowledge, conversely, it has expounded the landscape of satire by opening up the accessibility of human illicit practices to a broader public domain. For example, every conceivable kind of Pornographic deviance is easily found on the internet, inclusive of paedophilia, and beastiality. With a few clicks someone can purchase weapons, illegal drugs, and bomb-making equipment, when you are in possession of your bomb-making materials, you can then watch a video detailing the way to make the bomb work effectively, and further still, you can find a collective fascist group that will assist you in your radicalisation. Even the internet itself is a cloak and mirrors affair, The seemingly safe, security conscious Google etc. are easily replaced with an external unregulated legal browser such as the TOR browser where even more extensive human debauchery can be accessed. Main stream television has seemingly broadened the scope and breadth of alignment with public desensitisation ? By offering ever greater graphically illicit programming. The proliferation of TV programming with a pornographic bias, for example, with high levels of nudity, sexual intercourse, and sexual freedoms within occupations and personal gratifications. Contemporary Fine art has also been responsible for the synthesization of broader acceptance paradigms, for example, Jeff Koons series Made in Heaven series (1989) Was castigated by some as pure pornography, for many, the porn industry represents an archaic and outmoded view of women. It continues to promote an ideology of objectification and submission which is considered anti-progressive. There is concern that by normalising sex and subjugating the actors, porn and pornographic art may go as far as to encourage sexual violence. Koons stipulated however that, ‘I’m not interested in pornography, I’m interested in the spiritual, to be able to show people that they can have impact, to achieve their desires.’ (Koons 1990) The purpose of the proposed research therefore, is in three parts: To understand the context by which potentially disturbing images may lead to adverse reactions, even when the image context has been offered in a humorous and realistically honest framework. With specific regard to the painting of satirical imagery. To investigate envirobiopsychosociospiritual factors that may influence satirical and personally challenging imagery processing, and comprehension. I am also interested in finding how and why the general desensitisation of contemporary moral and ethical paradigms may have been driven by the seemingly ever-expounding cultural decadence. My research is not concerned with a wholly political view, of current cultural paradigms. Although, political overtones may be present. I am also unconcerned, with specific characterisation of political or public figures and celebrities. Any characterisation will be within, and limited to, the subtleties of the visually humorized aesthetic of the characters. The characters being the constituents of any given pictorial scenario, and related to the everyman. Rather, I wish to engage in a form of satirical social commentary, Satire specific to social commentary within painting is relatively unchartered. The narrative form of the work I am proposing is biased toward an overview of contemporary society, and realised through both my own creative imagination, and technique, and characterised by social, ethical and moral dilemmas pertinent to the everyman and everyday life, within modern society. An understanding of how the research will relate to my practice, will generally be more understood when my work is viewed in context. My style relies on humorised coding, and effects My style sits between both, in a void of its own, it has my unique sense of vision. My style is not chosen. Or preferred, it is my natural way to work, a style that has been developed over a long period. It is based upon my own lived experience and an In-depth evidence-based knowledge platform therefore satire is a natural extension, personally and professionally. My practice work will be synthesized within the constructs of my research by permeating through and amalgamating research with practice. The integration of a satirical body of work will aid in the production of an evidence base for these findings.
Isabelle Graw. The Love of painting
Contemporary Figurative painting
Figurative art today
