Crafty Postmodernism?

Postmodernism became enmeshed in the commercial culture it originally set out to critique. Postmodernism: Style and Subversion 1970-1990 opens at the V&A today – and money is a major theme. The exhibition includes one of Warhol’s famous pop art dollar signs, from 1981, as a testament to this. And a quote from Martin Amis; “Money doesn’t mind if we say it’s evil – it goes from strength to strength. It’s a fiction, an addiction and a tacit conspiracy.”


I noticed that money is also something of a theme at the 2011 London Design Festival. Tine de Ruysser, showing at the Origin craft fair in Spitalfields Market, has produced a collection of banknote jewellery, made with money from all over the world. Tine trained in jewellery design in Antwerp and at the Royal College of Art in London, where she was awarded a PhD in 2010. Her banknote necklaces and money bracelets are a comment on the value of gold jewellery and the reasons why people wear it.

But what started as a study of the perceived worth of gold jewellery made Tine curious to find out more about money: the role it plays in our daily lives and our international connections. And Tine is now asking members of the public to donate cash for her World Money Project, to create a cloak made from banknotes.

Her money cloak will be a symbol of worldwide financial solidarity – “a means of keeping everyone warm, a shelter for all.” Her art project aims to show “the tension between how we would like money to be used (giving everyone a fair chance in life) versus the sometimes harsh reality of money-making” and its negative effects on some people. “Only if we all work together will this piece become reality,” she says.

Meantime, curator, Mariana Pestana, thought it relevant to consider the economic purpose of many of the exhibitions that take place during London’s design week:  The Auction Room at Designersblock provides an alternative solution to the distribution of funds. Young designers are used to trading their products and services in return for goods they may not otherwise be able to afford. Incidentally, the V&A’s exhibition includes a 1981 work by Bill Woodrow: Twin Tub with Guitar, which “works to convey the idea (derived from Marxist theory) that all commodities are in some sense interchangeable.”

Anyway, this Sunday at the Farmiloe Building in St John Street, Pestana’s ‘fake’ Auction Room will be exchanging the handcrafted work of 14 designers (everything from the chairs, to the auction room hammer) in return for the most valuable products, services or opportunities offered. But how will the bartering work, the value of the bids be determined, or the offers compared with each other? Will the advantages of a common currency become all too clear, or will money be deemed totally unnecessary?

It may not sound practical, but this design experiment is one to watch…

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About Author Profile: Susan Muncey

Trend consultant Susan Muncey, is Editor of Visuology Magazine. In 2008, she founded online curiosity shop, ShopCurious.com. She writes on style and trends for several blogs, including Visuology.com, ShopCuriousMag.com and The Dabbler. She previously owned cult West London boutique, Fashion Gallery, one of the first concept stores in the world. Susan graduated in geography from Cambridge University and is also an Associate Member of the CFA Institute. She lives in London with her husband.

7 thoughts on “Crafty Postmodernism?

  1. Wormstir@gmail.com'
    Worm
    September 24, 2011 at 09:10

    I think an artistic statement about money that has true lasting value was Bill Drummond burning a million pounds on a Scottish island, otherwise artists talking about money in order to make money from an artworld that is currently awash with money seems v. Postmodern

    • info@shopcurious.com'
      September 24, 2011 at 14:13

      According to Wikipedia, Drummond later admitted to the BBC that he regretted burning the money.”It’s a hard one to explain to your kids and it doesn’t get any easier. I wish I could explain why I did it so people would understand.” Rumour has it that the £1 million was “bought’ from the Royal Mint – and was to be incinerated anyway (as notes that have become too fragile to remain in circulation usually are). It is reported that the £1 million actually cost the KLF £40,000 – the publicity generated by the “stunt” was well worth the financial outlay…

  2. johngjobling@googlemail.com'
    malty
    September 24, 2011 at 11:21

    All together now

    If you haven’t any coal in the stove
    And you freeze in the winter
    And you curse on the wind
    At your fate
    When you haven’t any shoes
    On your feet
    And your coat’s thin as paper
    And you look thirty pounds
    Underweight.
    When you go to get a word of advice
    From the fat little pastor
    He will tell you to love evermore.
    But when hunger comes a rap,
    Rat-a-tat, rat-a-tat at the window…

    A story as old as time itself, the tortured soul of the artist, money, you ain’t goin’ to contaminate me
    Barter is also ancient, a form of trade, useful in its day (although goodness knows what the Florentines swapped with the Turks and Chinkies, for the dye making goodies) totally impractical of course, the not insignificant problem of fair trade inconveniently intervening.

    I have always distrusted the term ‘postmodern’ suspecting that it was yet another bunch of clever clogs simply kicking Nietzsche in the goolies, any bunch of said clogs taking that dodgy kraut seriously, well, really, total lack of grip on reality, that’s wot I say.

    Another very interesting post Susan, the doings of the talented young as they struggle to earn a daily crust / flex their creativity, ever fascinating.

  3. September 24, 2011 at 14:42

    Yes, the term Postmodernism is curiously nebulous, Malty – plenty of room for interpretation, and perfect for provoking intellectual debate and all sorts of crazy ideas. Though initially associated with architecture and popularized as a term by Charles Jencks, it spawned a movement in art and design largely based on stylistic stunts like Mendini’s burning of a Lassu chair in 1974. I’m not a philosopher, but Postmodernism seemed to be mainly a reaction against conventional ideology – at least before pop art turned ‘luxury designer’, and ‘bricolage’ became contemporary design art…

  4. Wormstir@gmail.com'
    Worm
    September 24, 2011 at 14:57

    I’m probably wrong and I’ve never bothered to actually look it up to check, but I’ve always thought of post modernism to be ‘meta’ art, that is art about art

  5. andrewnixon@blueyonder.co.uk'
    September 25, 2011 at 19:10

    I suppose you’d never be in any doubt as to the minimum monetary value of that cloak.

    Great stuff Susan. “Postmodern” is indeed a slippery beast, you can apply it to almost anything, which is in itself a postmodern element of it… Or is that post-postmodernism?

  6. davidkstead@hotmail.com'
    September 27, 2011 at 09:42

    Movements come and go, the young bloods are jockeying in the stalls even now and I look forward to seeing who is first past the post modernism.

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