‘There are no hard distinctions between what is real and what is unreal, nor between what is true and what is false.
A thing is not necessarily either true or false; it can be both true and false’ – Harold Pinter, 2005.

As Paul Fry states ‘without doubt one of the most murky concepts to which we’ve been exposed in the past twenty or thirty years’. As a result, composing a definition of postmodernism is almost impossible as each different art form has its own measures for defining it. This is why is cannot be seen as a movement as there is no unified direction or intention of the postmodern artists and rather a further sense of the individual. Philip Auslander attempts to define a postmodernist as someone whose work possesses ‘stylistic features that align them with postmodernism as a feeling, an episteme, rather than a chronologically defined moment’ (2004, p.98). Auslander then continues to discuss postmodernism’s effect on art. He states ‘Michael Benamou… identifies performance as “the unifying code of the postmodern”‘ (2004, p.99).

‘What exactly is postmodernism, except modernism without the anxiety?’ – Lethem, 2007.

Postmodernism ‘carries modernist principles beyond anticipated boundaries’ and distinctively ‘rejects modern principles altogether’ (Whitemore 1994, p. 2). Art of the post-modern form aims to ask questions rather than supply the audience, spectator or passer-by, the answers to anything. The definitive message is not as clear-cut as oppose to other forms, such as its predecessor modernism. Postmodern spectators are essentially in control of what they get out of a performance. John Whitmore argues that they are ‘given the creative leeway to bring meanings out of the experience through an interaction with the seemingly disordered signifiers of the performance’ (Whitmore, 1994, p.19).

Whitmore also discusses the fact that postmodern artists ‘are challenging the centrality and sacredness of playscripts’ (1994, p. 1). The artists are using these plays as a place to begin and eventually deconstruct them ‘in order to speak more directly to the contemporary audience’ (1994, p.1). This form is not only used by the theatre but by artists such as Andy Warhol, with distinctive pop-art technique, by using past paintings or photographs and then embellishing them as exemplified by the painting of John Lennon above.

‘They may use playscripts, new and old, as a place to begin a production, but they do not feel compelled to treat the playscript as a sacred altar to be devoutly worshipped’ – Smidt, 2005.

Andy Warhol got his commuppance from Gob Squad who created their own stage version of his 1965 film Kitchen

The piece explained and de-constructed Warhol’s film creating a totally new intending to be ore appropriate for a contemporary audience. These ideas of renewing and revamping old creations inspires my own work and i aim to introduce things from the past in a new light in my final performance.

Works Cited

Auslander, P. (2004) Postmodernism and Performance. In: Steven Connor (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Postmodernism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Lethem, J. (2007) The Ecstasy of Influence. Harper’s Magazine, February 59-71.

Pinter, H. (2005) Art, Truth and Politics. [speech] Stockholm, 7 December. Availabe from http://www.nobelprize.org/mediaplayer/index.php?id=620 [Accessed 4 October 2014].

Schmidt, K. (2005) The Theater of Transformation: Postmodernism in American Drama. Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi.

Whitmore, J. (1994) Directing Postmodern Theater: Shaping Signification in Performance. Michigan: University of Michigan Press.