P O S T M O D E R N I S M

"Postmodernism was more like a broken mirror, a reflecting surface made of many fragments. "

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"Excuse me child, I am trying to see all the colors and wonder your brightness can be. Return to nothingness and joy just might be right. "

Postmodernism: Style and Subversion 1970-1990

London: V&A from 24 September 2011-8 January 2012.

I was born in 1974, which means in 1984, I was 10 years old.

1984... New Order has just released Power Lies and Corruption, Ronald Reagan is President, Derek Jarman releases Imagining October, The Apple Macintosh is introduced, Molly Ringwald in Sixteen Candles premieres, Madonna releases "Borderline, Ettore Sottsass designs the Mimosa Table, Andy Warhol paints a portrait of Michael Jackson, Keith Haring gains more and more fame, and by the end of 1984, there had been 7,699 AIDS cases and 3,665 AIDS deaths in the USA.

A time of extreme movement and rebellion, this was my Y O U T H. Let's Dance! - David John

i-D, no 28. The Art Issue, August 1985. Styled by William Faulkner, design by Terry Jones, photograph by Nick Knight, featuring Lizzy Tear.

London: V&A from 24 September 2011-8 January 2012.

"Of all movements in art and design history, postmodernism is perhaps the most controversial. This era defies definition... Postmodernism was an unstable mix of the theatrical and theoretical. It was visually thrilling, a multifaceted style that ranged from the colorful to the ruinous, the ludicrous to the luxurious."

What they all had in common was a drastic departure from modernism’s utopian visions, which had been based on clarity and simplicity. The modernists wanted to open a window onto a new world. Postmodernism, by contrast, was more like a broken mirror, a reflecting surface made of many fragments. Its key principles were complexity and contradiction. It was meant to resist authority, yet over the course of two decades, from about 1970 to 1990, it became enmeshed in the very circuits of money and influence that it had initially sought to dismantle.

Postmodernism shattered established ideas about STYLE. It brought a radical freedom to art and design, through gestures that were often funny, sometimes confrontational and occasionally absurd. Most of all, postmodernism brought a new self-awareness about style itself."

"I feel so extraordinary Something's got a hold on me

I get this feeling I'm in motion A sudden sense of liberty

I don't care 'cause I'm not there And I don't care if I'm here tomorrow."

(both lyrics by Hot Chip & New Order...)