POST-PARADISE. ASPECTS OF PARADISIACAL IMAGERY IN CONTEMPORARY ART
Keywords:
post-paradise, kitsch, infantile, paradise, romantic-vulgar paradise, romantic-sexless paradise, fairylike places, utopiaAbstract
The present article aims to pin down certain aspects of the imagery related to the idea of Paradise in contemporary art. We live in a disenchanted world devoid of transcendental meaning, a world in which we have built, in our own image, our own kitsch, stupid, vulgar, infantile Paradises. Concepts like Paradise, purity and happiness are tainted by a sugary or trivial aura, making it virtually impossible to address them without raising an ironic smile. Hell and its perspective are so much closer! Contemporary art generously reflects ugliness, pornography, the grotesque, the evil, the absurd etc. - all the attributes of the infernal, as being something quite natural. They no longer scandalize, they are no longer shocking; on the contrary, we admire and savor them, snobbishly.
