Modernism was a rational design.
Whereas postmodernism was all about attacking and burning that. Energy released by smashing the art just like Alessandro Mendini burnt the chair and portrayed how boring modernism was and till what extent can postmodernism go. Paintings too were made in a way to get out of the sense of feeling trapped by modernism.
Basically, it was a stunt pulled to rip off modernism and get out of boxes like designs and give an infinite scope to design. Post modernists said less is a bore and weren't inspired by Picasso's works either. It was an era where they started using plastic unlike modernism and were inspired from organic forms. The local furniture was pretty cheap and it speaks about the consumers environment in the 1960s and 70s. This was the start of using recycled materials too. They anyways didn't have any intention to save the environment in the start. We also see more of chrome and tubular constructions were inspired from the bicycle in Bauhaus. They also started the use of inflatable furniture to serve a temporary purpose for example wanting a sofa in the tree house for a week. Some designs like water bed which weren't comfortable but it had a status symbol and people still bought it. Mass media helped them to take their products and ideology further it had a dynamic and an unsettling voice.
Neil Armstrong the first man to land on the moon had a lot of influence on the art and designs and took it to futuristic art. The beginning of 70s was the first-time people saw so many computers on TV at a time when NASA launched the rocket. George Sowden and Ettore Sottsass were the 1st ones to realise because the computers were component based you deconstruct them separating out the keyboard, monitor and process rather than mounting them in a giant futuristic desk in, this led to collage like furniture designs.
Alessi and Memphis changed the perception of art. Some of them went to form the basis for the decorative finishes added to modernist style furniture exhibited at the 1st Memphis show in 1981. The Memphis group at first worked individually with different ideas, designs and then united all their ideas and made a collage of them all. Infinite number of collage could be made with the same ideas. The perceived unity was not calculated. They challenged the audience and wanted all to question them for the works they did. Objects to non-reasoned extra jewellery to many other things.
Although postmodernism never took off as a style that can be used in daily lives but it was just seen to exist. More importantly it was the images of the furniture and the interior that stood out rather than the objects itself. The pictures were circulated more in magazines, museums (Vienna) didn't see them in an actual store but more like an influence. These furniture and interior designs were later seen in most of the music videos, jewellery , outfits, dishes, jackets and new patterns starting coming up. Each piece stood out as a brand.
Ron Arad
His work was provocative and had an apocalyptic shop called one-off. His subsequent and tireless experimentation with the possibilities of materials and technology, and his radical re conception of the form and structure of objects large and small had put him at the forefront of post modern designs.
Concrete stereo 1992
These turn the table arms and the table itself and the amplifier component. He literally embedded them in blocks of reinforced concrete and smashes them with a hammer to expose the underlying structure. It looks like products were designed from a dark future that looks like a prop from the film like Blade Runner or other dystopian sci-fi films of that time.
Very high concept and very radical set of design ideas that's being out in the service of something that looks Initially quite indigestible and is certainly very difficult, challenging. It has a brilliant entrepreneurship as it's so striking and camera ready .
The so-called ceramic totem that he created in the late 60s
Informed and inspired by the points of reference were influencing Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown. He also said that in his view Memphis objects could only live with very intense and I think this gives you a sense of that intense
He stands for an example of smart and effective work.
Ettore Sottsass
“Transcendentalism a form of philosophy where it is required to meditate in silence in order to detach oneself from the everyday problems and anxiety”. He believed in the importance of creativity and individuality, and felt that designers had the and the responsibility to create objects that could serve as an expression of personality. Ettore Sottsass was floating in this world of suggestive forms.
Bright colors and improbable forms all the way since the late 1990s.
“ you don’t save your soul just by painting everything white”.
Nathan Silver
designed a dining chair.
He installed wheels as he had a wooden
flooring and didn’t want the chair to be
dragged on the floor and ruin it so he added
the wheels which were the costliest parts
he added the gas pipes and painted them red,
an insulating foam and a seat picked up from
the tractor. It looks weird and yet pleasing.
I further conclude the article with a few observations and facts.
Postmodernism was just to prove how far and wild design can go. It was all about beauty ,formal correctness, coherence, function of an object not being absolute, metaphysical values and that they responded to a culture of a system much better than any other art revolution.
The products that were designed were brands by themselves and were a status symbol.
It was a collage of different ideas and materials. It was a revolution whose impact is still seen at this time too, it keeps coming now and then and perhaps it is a never ending era.
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