This writing appeared in the Toronto Art Newspaper, The Artist & The Viewer
2/2020
Metamodern Times
Categorizing the cultural time in which one lives can be a difficult task. I suppose it can be a little like trying to construct an aerial map of a sprawling forest by walking from one tree or plant to another. When our vision is narrowed by choice or circumstance it can be hard to gain a glimpse of the big picture.
Yet in our ‘liquid modernity’ (as the late sociologist and philosopher Zygmunt Bauman coined it) I believe there is a dominant cultural thread that runs through our daily lives. It is a thread that acknowledges the cynicism of recent postmodernism, yet also embraces the naive hope and optimism of earlier times. It is a thread that oscillates between these two opposing positions; and seeks to create new art, new mindsets, and new feelings.
Its mode of operation is combination and construction. A method that feeds off of the digital mediums that now shape our reality. Our social media streams, our digital entertainment, the internet, and our smartphones; they all provide the bricks that this new cultural paradigm uses to build its edifices. Like a million legos scattered across an empty room; digital images, videos, and information are available to be utilized at a moments notice.
What should we call this time of digital abundance and cynical optimism? We should call it metamodern.
Our metamodern time is one where we search for authentic meaning amid the rubble of norms and traditions that were shattered long ago. The four main realms of meaning (vocation, community, religion, and family) have become opaque and uncertain amid waning beliefs, changing times, and economic pressures. We have had no choice but to piece together what we can. Moving across our liquid, digital landscape like 21st century hunter-gatherers; seeking spiritual nourishment as we scroll, swipe, and scan our way forward.
As of now, there is no defined ‘metamodern’ artistic movement. Yet if we take the metamodern description of our cultural times to be true, then some of the art currently being produced displays emergent metamodern characteristics. We can see such characteristics in visual art that uses text to stir emotions concerning injustice or apathy, yet also appeals to ‘kitschy’ emotional authenticity. We can see them in films or books that oscillate between dry ironic humor, and eternal themes like love, truth, and beauty. And we can see them in digital creations that combine disparate elements, not simply for the sake of combination, but in order to create a new state of contemplation and reflection.
If metamodernism were an organic structure, a sense of yearning would bind its sub atomic elements. Unseen, but understood to exist, this feeling we all share to live a life full of authentic meaning tugs at our subconscious like a slow gravitational pull. This underlying tension has become a prominent theme in our cultural zeitgeist. And I can see no better way to artistically probe this tension than metamodern experimentation.