PQ

DICTIONARY 

P Q

Paraphrase
A paraphrase is a rewrite, recreation or other interpretative treatment of a text, a visual or auditive statement in a piece of music, literary work or artwork.

Elina Brotherus


Performance
A branch of action art from the 1970s. In a performance the artist is alone on stage without involving the audience, as opposed to happenings, as seen in Fluxus. Performance frequently discusses gender issues.

Per Kirkeby, Dan Graham, Mona Hatoum, John Kørner, John Bock


Pop Art
Art movement which emerged in the 1950s in USA and Western Europe. The Pop artists employed the imagery and consumer goods of mass culture and their art was closely related to life in the modern big city. By utilising recognisable subjects from comics, TV, movies and magazines they rebelled against highbrow art which at this point was represented by Abstract Expressionism (above all in New York). The Pop artists worked in a figurative art which everybody could easily understand.

In USA Andy Warhol (1928-87) and Roy Lichtenstein (1923-97) are key exponents of Pop.

Lars Arrhenius, Anders Brinch, Stella Hamberg, Per Kirkeby, Jeff Koons, Troels Wörsel


Postmodernism
Collective term for cultural theory incorporating several directions, emerging in the 1970s. Postmodernism is found in philosophy, architecture, art, literature, dance, film and sociology and, like Modernism, is hard to pin down. Postmodernism is not unequivocal and is described as either a continuation of Modernism or a rejection of it.

In philosophy the French school is particularly dominant. It is distinguished by a dismissal of the so-called 'grand narratives' such as Marxism and psychoanalysis in favour of the 'small narratives' that are dependant on the specific context and cannot be applied to everything.

In pictorial art the 1980s were dominated by expressive painting brimming with quotations from art history as well as from society at large. This art was a disavowal of Modernism's desire for originality and innovation; the Postmodernist artists believe it is impossible to create something new since essentially everything has been done before. This notion is also evident in Postmodern architecture which abounds with stylistic quotes from previous periods.

Vibeke Tandberg, Elisabeth Toubro, Torbjørn Rødland


Psychogeography
A term employed by the Situationists (Situationiste Internationale) in the late 1950s to describe how the city's geographic layout influences the individual's psychic reactions.

Lars Arrhenius


Queer
Offensive slang for homosexual but also meaning odd or unconventional.

Now the term has been reclaimed as an unbiased umbrella term for homosexuality in both men and women and is used as such primarily in gender studies.

Michael Elmgreen & Ingar Dragset