The butt of the joke. A phallic object. The addiction of mass pop culture. A glorification of detritus. A statement on kitsch. Oral fixation. ….
In The Anxiety of Influence, Harold Bloom argues that modern poets have an Oedipal relationship with the great poets of the past. In some ways, isn’t postart a valid response to the anxiety that being brought up in the shadow of greatness causes?…
…Yes, “the anxiety of influence” is also operational in postart, but I would say it is more pre-Oedipal than Oedipal in import, for it involves an attempt to annihilate the art of the past – traditional and modern – through indifference and ignorance. (Many postartists seem to be art school graduates who know next to nothing about the history of art and everything about the youth culture. Postart seems to be a part of it. The muse of Warhol and Hirst seems to be the bitch goddess of popular culture success.) I also happen to think avant-garde art’s relationship to traditional art was pre-Oedipal rather than Oedipal, as Bloom thought it was, with the difference that avant-garde art wants to annihilate traditional art by analizing it out of unconscious envy. (I am referring to Chasseguet-Smirgel’s idea of the “anal universe.”) Read More:http://www.themodernword.com/reviews/kuspit.html