A look at the definition of 'Meaning' and 'Reality' by Jean Baudrillard andTheir Reflection in Postmodern Art

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Assistant Professor, Department of Painting, Faculty of Arts, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

 
Post-modernism, both in theory and in art, is faced with a disappearance of meaning and imponderable situation, and anti-determinism and uncertainty as its main motives. Jean Baudrillard (1929-2006) as one of the most influential theorists and critics of post-modernism, has put his main focus on the criticism of new communication media, the meaninglessness of icons and debates such as hyper-reality and loss of reality.
. He stands out as a prominent contemporary thinker and a controversial writer in the fields of literary theories, semiotics, sociology, and postmodernism criticism. Baudrillard contended that contemporary icons had lost their fixed values and natural significance, emphasizing their profound meaninglessness in numerous works, such as "System of Objects" (1968), "Toward the Political Economy of Icons" (1972), where he evaluated, criticized, and raised doubts about Marx's economic theory Baudrillard's provocativewritings in the 70s and 80s of the 20th century, such as Consumer Society[1] (1970), Simulacra and Simulation [1] (1981), In the Shadow of the Silent Majority[1] (1978) have obtained for him a special place in scientific and literary societies. His collection of articles related to the Persian Gulf War in 1991, which was published under the title The Gulf War Did Not Happen[1], garnered widespread attention, discussion, and criticism.Baudrillard's somewhat exaggerated opinions contained controversial messages such as the loss of reality, which eventually led to the emergence of a new concept called hyperreality.
In the 70s and 80s of the last century, he claimed that we live in the age of simulations. This starts from the growth and expansion of information technologies, including computers and virtual media. Baudrillard clearly claims that in today's era, meaning tends to vanish within the realm of communication.
This research endeavors to analyze various postmodern artworks and compare them with Jean Baudrillard's perspectives on the definitions of "meaning" and "reality," seeking a deeper understanding of the conceptual layers of postmodern art.The research method is descriptive-analytical, which is carried out with an inferential approach, , and falls into the category of basic research in terms of its purpose. The method of collecting information is based on written library documents and internet sources.
 
 
A case study including works by seven artists (Liu Bolin, Duane Hanson, Don Eddy, Nam June Paik, Leopoldo Maler, Benjamin Edwards and David Hockney), which are clear examples to explain Baudrillard's ideas about the loss of meaning and Reality in the field of visual arts.The research questions are:
How do features of postmodern thought, such as the vanishing of meaning and the loss of reality, manifest in contemporary visual arts and through what media?
In light of the prevalence of virtual reality and the clash between reality and imagery, what transformations have visual arts undergone?
Drawing on Baudrillard's views on meaning and reality, how can contemporary artworks be interpreted?
Chinese artist Liu Bolin (born in 1973) has created works that may be difficult to place in a specific art group. The mentioned works can be considered a perfect combination of painting, sculpture, photography, body art and performance arts. The artist has publicly reflected the cultural policies of the Chinese communist government and the transmutations of individuality in social interests in his works. Bolin, who is also known as the "invisible man", chooses the body of a living human being as the main substrate of the work of art. By meticulously camouflaging these individuals to blend seamlessly with their surroundings, he creates visual illusions that convey the complete transformation and disappearance of reality. Baudrillard's terms such as the disappearance of meaning, the disappearance of reality, simulacrums to replace reality, etc., are visually expressed in Bolein's works. 
Another discussed work is “Woman with Shopping Basket” by Duane Hanson. Although this work shows the reality of urban life in America at first glance, it actually challenges it with a critical view by its over statement. What Hanson does in this work is to show the complete set of mentality of the American consumer society.
Baudrillard mentions that in the consumer society the value of "being" means the sacrifice of economic values. Abundance only finds meaning in extravagance. For abundance to become value, "enough" must give way to "too much".Therefore, it can be said that this extravagance is present in all aspects of today's life, and reality is not exempt from this pattern, and extravagance in reality or in other words, abundance in reality is also evident. On the other hand, hyperrealism itself shows a state of abundance of reality.The next work belongs to Don Eddy. While the subject of the work is familiar and general, it shows a complex and overlapping scene of a shop window. In his works, Eddy tries to show the relationship between man and space in an enigmatic, complex and multiple way by mixing up visual plans. By creating the illusion of reality, he creates a space in his works that bring a multifaceted and poly hedral experience of the contemporary confused reality to come into existence. Eddy's works can be considered as a hyper-reality, which tries to show a deeper meaning than reality.  The next one is TV Buddha, by Paik, a statue of a thinking and mesmerized Buddha in front of a television box. It aims at demonstrating the dominance of today's media over ancient beliefs, as well as the conflict between religion and technology.The statue stares at its virtual image, as if it is deep in thought. Virtual space offers a new definition of Buddha to himself. In this work, the artist presents a new definitions of the boundary between reality and the tropologic and cultural confrontation by contrasting Eastern religious thinking and the Western technological world. The next discussed work is “ The Death Sequence“ by Leopoldo Malerwhich reflects the duality and conflict between reality and image andevokes Baudrillard's ideas about the power of image over reality in the system of simulacrum. A nurse is sitting next to a bed that holds the image of a corpse. The work represents a reality: decomposition on different levels. In this way, the image is in the main focus of the subject and the reality is placed in its margin, just as death is prioritized over life. To understand the concepts of instability of meaning and plural space, we can refer to the creative experiences of Hockney's photographs and Edwards' paintings.In Edwards' works, the experience of ruptured space and elongated time within the genre of landscape painting produces a surreal effect more pronounced than in other painting genres. His landscapes create multifaceted spatiotemporal intervals that underscore the instability of meaning and the ephemeral nature of events .Baudrillard engaged with the subject of postmodern art personally and left significant writings in this field.Post-modern artists have created works influenced by intellectual currents, including Baudrillard's critical thoughts. By comparing the works of the mentioned artists with the thoughts of Jean Baudrillard, we exclude the commonalities between theory and practice in the postmodern era in a deeper way. Discussions such as the disappearance of meaning and the loss of reality in Bolin's mixed art, hyper-reality in the works of Hanson and Eddy, the omnipresence of virtual space in Paik's works, and the conflict between reality and image and the substitution of simulacrum for reality in the work of Maler, as well as The plural space in the works of Edwards and Hockney all confirm the disappearance of meaning and the loss of reality in contemporary thought and practically show the link between theory and practice in examples of post-modern art.
 
 
 

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URL2. https://www.clevelandart.org: date access: 1401/3/3
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Glory of Art (Jelve-y Honar) Alzahra Scientific Quarterly Journal
Volume 15, Issue 3 - Serial Number 40
October 2023
Pages 106-123

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