Abstract

My project argues for the resurgence of satire through the specifity of contemporary painting, under the auspices of altermodernity. The humanist principles of equality and equity drive this exegesis. The universal language of a relational satire is consumed daily through the glut of mass media. My exploration aims to clarify fundamental formal and abstract notions of the nature, function, and significance of satire within its pluralistic complexity. To realize these aims, I introduce and develop methodological frameworks to clarify concepts related to satire, that focus less on advocating that it changes individual and world opinion, and more upon how individuals endure dysfunctionality through satire. Altermodernism's universality is advocated above postmodernism's colonial west relativism. Altermodernism acts as a moral compass for painting as satire that can be observed to be an advancement of the contextual, relational dependency of meaning. Altermodernity has interspersed into units of oppositional ideology, a world of disrupted attitudes and threatened identities attempting to navigate a world in permacrisis; satire requires a re-examination in this context. Permacrisis describes a world of system dysfunction defined as an extended period of instability and insecurity, and illustrated through dysfunctional world politics, multi-societal inequalities. Painting as satire offers a relational and cathartic conduit for accessibility and readability. Interpretivist ontology, embracing subjectivity, and seeing the world through the eyes of the audience outlines this research project’s conceptual framework. I will discuss this project through the altermodern lens of enlightenment, and ethnocentrism, a dialogical approach, emphasizing an ethical disposition informing the painter as autoethnographic catalyst of permacrisis, encompassing an egalitarian disposition.

In summary: my research aims to position my painting practice within the transcultural universality of altermodernity which offers an egalitarian position. Altermodernity stresses the importance of the unique individual, connected through the construct of being as one in the world, advocating for shared cultures and values. The importance of cultural differences within Bourriaud’s Altermodernity stands in a dynamic with common values in opposition to postmodernism’s relativism, which it cannot account for.

My thesis is organized within three Chapters:

Chapter one

Literature review:

I present and discuss the history and contemporality of satire. The altermodern epoch of a creolized archipelago, a new global culture emerging after postmodernism, positioning
through new tendencies in painting after 1970. I contextualize the contemporality of painting in relation to its deconstruction and how this deconstruction relates to contemporary satire. I discuss the autoethnographic painter in relation to self-determined practice, in terms of postmodernism’s relativism. The digital economy is outlined to show how painting’s
indexicality may be compromised by new technologies.

Chapter two

Methodology section:

I describe four main methodological approaches: To create a body of 30 satirical paintings, that contain accessible and readable codes of satire. I discuss how, and why, satire’s codes, signs, and symbols are interpreted, thus helping to understand painting as a relational satire for individuals and groups. I draw upon an accumulation of evidence-based theories outlined within psychology and social anthropology as a design for this process, namely, intersubjectivity, phenomenology, reflexivity, and reciprocity, whose mechanisms act in relation to learned human behavior. I formulate an interpretation of satirical codification through these learned behavior parameters, presented as: analogy, parody, metaphor, subversion, and irony. I demonstrate how painting as satire encapsulates altermodernism's transcultural universalism, to situate my practice within altermodernism’s egalitarian, ethical and moral standard, in line with my personal ethos of humanism. To understand a contemporary painter’s views on the relevance of satire within the contemporary art world, I facilitate an interview with a prominent contemporary painter, Ken Currie. To inform my practice and its development, by both validating my own work, situating my work within the contemporary art framework, and creating an understanding of the relevance of satire within contemporary art. I facilitated exhibitions, and procured surveys, to understand audience accessibility of painting as satire. To assist in confirming my practice, and to offer a structured approach to visual information, informing effective and efficient accessibility and readability.

Chapter three

My contribution -
I claim originality for satire as painting through a practice-based PhD. I have developed an approach of a relational satire in the context of altermodernity’s creolized archipelagic direction. My painting ‘style’ is unique, and original, in both pictorial terms, and within the self-determined auspices of autoethnography. The work is a critique of cultural politics- the effects of political actions. I discuss the original contribution of my paintings in relation to recent debates within the theory and practice of painting in the contemporary field. I have created a new codification measurement tool for satire within painting. I have developed a system of understanding whether satire’s codes are ‘voiced’ or ‘silent’ within an artist’s work. I have assigned the prefix of ‘pseudo painting’ to painting’ condition in relation to the transformation of original work into the digital sphere. I have identified a need for a qualifiable design of satire; I believe I have contributed to the possible methodology for the design of satire, through a combination of hermeneutics, and semiotics.