It seems to me that Art in Postmodernism gives more importance to meaning than to beauty. The meaning Postmodern artists seek seems to be about relatively narrow issues, mainly about Modernism in art. Modern Art was a huge movement and so influential. Postmodern Art aims to go beyond Modernism. However, I am not personally convinced that Postmodern Art has achieved that.
In any case, the important issue for the contemporary artist is to make his or her work meaningful in the context of Postmodern Art. How can we achieve that? You may be able to guess from my discussion above. Make comments on Modernism through your work. That sounds so easy but it's actually very hard to achieve. I hope to talk more about how we can do that. Also I would like to think about whether Ikebana can deal with the same issue.
I would like to show you a new Japanese zen garden I designed for Komeyui restaurant in Port Melbourne this month. In my Japanese aesthetics class at RMIT university, one student asked me whether she can see in Melbourne a garden similar to the rock garden at Ryoanji. My answer was, “Go to Komeyui to see the garden I designed.” I hope you will have a chance to see it.
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