Postmodernism. Is it dead?

The thing about postmodernism is that there is no one-way to define it. That is apparently the most postmodern thing about it. Where do critics fit into this postmodern picture? After I go watch a film I like to read reviews, and although it interests me to see what people have to say about it I don't think it defines my own opinion of it but that's only because I probably have the same knowledge as them and can put that same knowledge into a different perspective.... but what about people without that knowledge? Must they depend on a singular person's perspective? Critics are forever trying to pass off their own opinions on things as the "right" one. Is there a right opinion? If there is, then clearly postmodernism is dead. Postmodernism only came into being because of the knowledge of the fact that there was far too much knowledge in the world to narrow information down but here are people who are making a whole career out of narrowing it down for us.

It can't be helped.... if enough information leads you to one direction then, unless you have access to all the other information, you tend to follow in on that one. Isn’t that a deconstruction of postmodernism? All art, all film... is in theory post modernistic and yet we have art awards and film awards. Does an Oscar winning film automatically mean a film's good? There has never been a theory or set of rules that defines what makes a good film, good and good art, good. It’s all personal. You take from films and art what you will. Titanic sailed through all the Oscars that year...and one year later those same critics that applauded it, suddenly decided it was no more than a soppy, romantic film. Postmodernism was still standing to an extent...but what is its place in the 21st century? I can't help but think we're slowly progressing into a post-post modernistic age, where all the distinctions we took away are being brought back into force. We’re redrawing all the lines we once rubbed out. How do I define a film in documentary, narrative or experimental? Are there no other genres? Do all the films I ever made not even count? If film and art is postmodern, is its interpretation becoming post-post modern? Will the two coexist? If not which one will survive?

Art. Is it really? What is? and How? and Why?

What is art? Is it a piece of blue tack stuck on a wall; or an unmade bed; or a cabin transported into a gallery from it's original location? It so happens that all of them are art. Well they were pieces by artists and shown in galleries. Is that then what defines art? Someone who's been labelled an artist? Who gave him/her the label? I like to refer to myself as an artist, and although i have shown work in galleries, and have been referred to as an artist, I know that there are enough people out there who would beg to differ. Yes, of course anyone can stick blue tack on a wall and spend hours getting people to place one piece of blue tack in the "right' position on the wall, or stick an unmade bed into a gallery, or even get people to move a cabin from a beach to a gallery....but there are only a few people doing it... and even if you did, what would be your reason for doing it? Would you have one? Was the cabin still art when the artist saw it on the beach or did it become art only when she transported it into the gallery? The unmade bed was considered beautiful to some and grotesque to others. Well I think the grotesque bit was not the unmade bed but the snot filled pieces of tissue paper scattered all around....and did she take the bed back to sleep on or buy herself another one? If it meant so much to her that she could put it in a gallery then surely she would want it back? But then if she did want it back, it's not really art is it? You have to put art out there and let it grow. How can it grow if you put it right back where it started?! At a family get together once, (I think it was the year Damien Hirst was showing dead cows and was later nominated for the turner prize) my aunt was absolutely appalled, "Picasso must be rolling over in his grave!" she exclaimed. "No it's what he would be doing if he were alive!" she was told. Art moves. It grows. It has to be allowed to breathe. You might disapporove of some art and like others, but you have to stop and understand where the artist is coming from. It's not for you or me to decide what art is....it's not for anybody to decide what makes art.....if it asks a question and gets you to think, even if it gets you to hate it....it's a job accomplished.