Reflection
I found it difficult at first to identify which visual culture work fitted into and as the word count limit was only 1000 to 1500, it was hard to fit everything in. I centred my work around postmodernism, as I felt this culture fitted my work the best. But I feel my work can be traced and linked to other visual cultures.
It is hard to define a work into a certain category, as often genres blend together. For me my work has pieces of each. One of the core aspects of modernism is nihilism, which is renunciation of values that originate from the belief of a higher power (Buchanan (2010)), but also the belief that the higher power was the primary means for progress (MDC). My body of work deals with themes of religion and feminism but I am also exploring social and cultural values. My work is not rejecting these beliefs as such but I am challenging them. So whilst I am not following nihilism fully, it has influenced my work. But on the other hand, modernism does not fit my work well, as it looks towards a better world, a new vision. I am trying to bring to light long-held beliefs and challenge them. I am not showing a utopia, which is a common theme in modernism. My images are not meant to be curative and they are not straightforward. Feminism diverged from a modernist viewpoint, so due to my work having a feminist motive, I feel it does fit a modernist label but I recognise it’s influence.
I believe my work has a place in the global age culture as I am publishing it online, it becomes accessible and aimed at a global audience. The gender inequality is a global issue, especially when we can recognise a patriarchal culture and society in our everyday lives. It effects us all, men and women. I am using a historic patriarchal local pilgrimage, teamed with a genre of photography which is notorious for it being male dominated, to bring this issue to a global audience. My images will be accessible all over the world, so I am able to show my work to a variety of cultures and societies.
But my work could fit into the poststructuralism visual culture. Postmodernism and Poststructuralism share a close relationship. Poststructuralism will be evident in my work. I hope my image will elude to a deeper meaning, one which the viewer can interpret. Denotation will be key in reading the meaning, but also the connotation will be useful, but this will vary as it is dependant on the viewers experiences (Barthes (2007), pp. 33-40).
Whilst I do believe my work fits better into the postmodern visual culture, I cannot ignore the influence from the other cultures. I think it is possible for a work to fit into multiple categories, I believe this is the case in my work.
I did struggle with this assignment at first, as I am in the very early stages of my body of work. Obviously my work will develop and may even change culture completely, but for my current direction of planning, postmodernism defines it. I did have trouble sticking to the work count. It is not a lot, and I did initially go over, so I have had to cut a bit out. Overall I think I got across what I wanted to say but I am not sure if it is completely correct. After I receive my tutor feedback and develop my work further, I could rework this assignment.
Bibliography
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Georgina's Contextual Studies 