A Good Laugh @ Course In Post-Modernity
Mapping The Post-modern
Has Globalisation acted as a major influence upon the ways that non-western artists negotiate issues of identity?
The phenomena that is globalisation has been a major influence upon all spheres of life and marketplace, as originally a western ideal of transcending the world marketplace into a local market due to the enhanced interdependence of nations upon one another, the connected markets and interconnected cultures have been exploited by lucrative business / commercialisation. Such a transposition of values have not destroyed all sense of identity but rather disseminated nation identity with a much more complex worldly virtual syndrome of ideas and conceptual positions, such as feminism, nihilism, humanism, and the list continues. The artist, perhaps more poignant for the non-western artist, not only embraces social issues that define their virtual identity but also partakes within an international discourse of these various and multiple social issues within the framework of the Arbiter or, Interpreter or, Activist. It is proposed within this essay that the influence of globalisation has not only caused non-western artists to take upon themselves a virtual role but also incorporate three distinct changes within the ‘art world’: the worldly acceptance of the ‘Other’, the pertinence and prevalence of multicultural and societal issues within art, and finally the changing relationship between the art critic and the art audience. The subsidiaries of economic globalisation, such as communication and expanded information, have created a local community of the globe thus bringing artist, audience and critic into a relationship never before experienced where all parties concerned are shaped by their relative knowledge bases, which are ultimately discerned by cultural influences, thus coercing a greater epistemological understanding of each others relationship all participants expecting each other to have prior contextual knowledge.
Throughout modes of art and art practice the understanding or coming to terms with the ‘other’ and ‘outsider’ has been a primary concern to cognitive thought and stimulation within the art world. The primary goal of many artworks have been to attempt to communicate a familiar group / singular / cultural definition of another unknown entity or difference and then reconcile this other with themselves and the audience. The communication mode of globalisation, although merely in a provisional method, has brought about a worldwide understanding of the other and their practices (this may not be true however in a few third world nation states). Thus the artist, critic and audience already conceive of a virtual cultural stereotype represented to them via their respective information outlets, creating a preconceived notion to which an artwork / art practice / art concept stands to be judged and / or considered within the world. For instance Chinese cultural minorities and dominant State have been preconceived by the world due to the circulation of the events upon Tiananman Square, this cultural identifier must be consummated by the artist in any of the three supposed roles of Arbiter, Interpreter, or Activist, presenting a message in relation to this global understanding of the ‘other’. The influence of globalisation has been major in this effect in due course largely because of the re-acquaintance that must be undertaken by non-western artists with their now global audience, artists must understand the positions of their virtual culture within the global marketplace. This has become so apparent in such instance of the Mexican / United States Free Trade Agreement and the affect of displacement such an agreement had upon the Latin American artists, present in the work of Michelle Angela Ortiz – a Latin American artist – who participated the ‘The Markings’ and ‘Energia’ series within the Mexico / United States Art Fair. The driving economic force of globalisation garnered horrific results for the native artists who initially participated and finally withdrew due to the money driven tourist attraction and eventual purchasing of well-known North-American artists. The artists themselves were not aware of the cultural expectations placed upon them by the influence of globalisation and thus this was not represented within their artworks, the economic rationalism resulted in more profitable artists being proffered gallery space.
The changing aspects of society and various interpretations of liberal theory are redefining modern western concepts of societal issues and what constitutes a minority group, and in turn are having global impact via the medium of economic globalisation. Although such arguments that popular majorities are not receiving accurate cultural and social information through global channels of communication due to its secondary nature within economic globalisation, the fact that an image of social and cultural issues are reaching a wide majority audience in a dominant position of audience and critic purports upon the non-western artist, most probably a minority in a western dominant art-world, a responsibility to at least implicitly address issues of impetus and importance. The expectation of societal address (redress) from the art audience and specifically art critic standpoint is inherent due to the influence of globalisation upon dominant social institutions and dominant cultural thought – the non-western artist, if she wishes to converse with the mainstream global audience, must now accept that a discourse of the global ideal of societal values must be found within art concept. The influence here is not as great as the observance of the other, for the non-western artist still has a great array of choice and needs not to merely be issued a position or stance but rather creates one individually upon the artist’s subjective being. The contemporary works of Allan Sekula and Martha Rosler illustrate the choice that the artist participates in referring to their respective stance on societal issues, particularly identifying the mainstream stereotype of their original society and presenting a varying perspective with justified opinion. Both artworks examine the shifts of marginal cultures in a global society, the short shelf life of concepts within popular culture and the speedy empowerment of that which re-instates power and financial gain.
The indirect influence of globalisation via the closing distance between art audiences and art critics applies an even pressure to artists, western and non-western, by the way an economic global market creates a position for the audience as a critic in the guise of what is financially viable. The relationship of art critic defining art and the audience reacting on such a critical definition is changing as globalisation influences artists to partake in business target market audiences to create a stage for presentation of realistic global justification for the creation of art and use of art practice in the mainstream. The digitalisation speedily connected via the globalisation trails brings art-space into the living space of the population, it is finitely so, the audience that maintains the capital for the succession and consequential continuation of the modern art world. The gallery space must contain items that are not available to an audience who is hardwired to the world and has the Mona Lisa available in the comfort of their own home twenty-four seven in high resolution millions of colour format. Artists such as Nam June Paik have adapted and created methods of art practice which even in today’s homogenous locality is still as of yet irretrievable from the global network of data. The thematic ideas and art practices developed by non-western artists claim that art is inseparable from the world and its global heritage, thus it must be experienced within the world but understood from the context of our homes.
The influences of globalisation have been driven largely from the market place, major changes occurring via the secondary information splurge that accompanies such a market place, resulting in a greater focus of the marketability of art in the global locale. Non-western artists have been shifted a great deal, due largely to their locality varying from the birthplace of globalisation, but also have developed new conceptual and practical methods of converting their individual, sometimes marginal, art concepts to a global audience. Whether or not the influence of western globalisation has been beneficial to non-western artists is a matter for further deliberation over a greater period of time, however it is important to note the influences spoken of above and how certain artist have dealt with globalisation.
Footnotes - That Word Stuffs Up On The Paste Every Time
Levey, Geoffrey. Liberal Nationalism and Cultural Rights. “Political Studies”; vol 49, 2001, pp. 670-691
Chomsky Noam, The Chomsky Reader, London, the Serpent’s Tail, 1988
Schöllhammer Georg, Art In The Era of Globalisation, http://www.republicart.net/disc/mundial/schoellhammer01_en.htm , 25/10/04
Baoill Andrew, Essays of National Identity, http://www.republicart.net/disc/mundial/schoellhammer01_en.htm , 25/10/04
Chomsky Noam, The Chomsky Reader, London, the Serpent’s Tail, 1988
Ibid.
Manovich Lev, The Language of New Media, Cambridge MIT Press, 2000
Nam June Paik - “06”
Alan Sekula – “Rdoc Coffin”
Martha Rosler – “airport”
Bibliography
Baoill Andrew, Essays of National Identity, http://www.republicart.net/disc/mundial/schoellhammer01_en.htm , 25/10/04
Chomsky Noam, The Chomsky Reader, London, the Serpent’s Tail, 1988
Foucault Michael, The Foucault Reader, Harmondsworth, Middlesex, Penguin, 1986
Kymlicka Will, Contemporary Political Philosophy, (2002), New York, Oxford University Press
Levey, Geoffrey. Liberal Nationalism and Cultural Rights. “Political Studies”; vol 49, 2001, pp. 670-691
Manovich Lev, The Language of New Media, Cambridge MIT Press, 2000
Schöllhammer Georg, Art In The Era of Globalisation, http://www.republicart.net/disc/mundial/schoellhammer01_en.htm , 25/10/04
Siegel H, Relativism Refuted, Boston, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1987
Sokal A, The Sokal Hoax: The Sham That Shook The Academy, Editors of Lingua Franca, University of Nebraska Press, 2000
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