I've recently become hooked on graphic design and magazines such as The Face and i-D are becoming my go-to source of inspiration.
The exhibition displayed the history of post-modernism, demonstrating the unstable mix of theatrical and theoretical, like a broken mirror reflecting many segments. Post-mod was meant to resist authority and present a radical freedom to the concept of design.
Many interpretations were present, from Alessandro Mendini 1974 destruction of the Monumentino da Casa, to Tandanori Yokoo's great mirror of the dance as an immolative sacrifice poster in 1968.
The ingredients to post-mod were obvious: high classicism and "low" popular culture. There is no single strategy that combines post-mod together, creating that sense of bewilderment and interest.
Strada Novissima street style, Apocolypse Now, Memphsis, Studio Alchymia were all featured throughout this exhibition.
A post-mod exhibition could not be complete without reference to the 1980's, deemed the "New Wave" of post-mod. Vivid colour, glossy surfaces, subversive statements with commercial appeal, post punk subculture aired through music videos; it was all featured.
It was great to see Boy George, Grace Jones, David Bowie and Laurie Anderson's work being admired, instead of being dismissed.
In the words of Charles Jenicks referral to the death of post-mod;
"After all, since it is fairly dead, we might as well enjoy picking over the corpse."
Let's hope it's a pretty big corpse.
