1. The postmodern principles that I incorperated in this piece are: appropriation, recontextualizing, text, and layering. Before I explain how I used the different principles, I though it was best that the idea of this piece was made clear. I was trying to express the importance of acknowledging the past in travelling forward.
Appropriation
I used images from magazines as my elements from the past. In taking images from magazines they became images identifiable with the past. There are recognizable paintings and famous figures included in the piles of items. In picking images that are easily associated with the past, the message becomes more clear.
Recontextualizing
The caution sign and the phrase "Look Both Ways" were the items I recontectualized. Both together were meant to be reminiscent of looking both ways before you cross the street, which could also be thought of as "look both ways before you proceed" and so can connect to proceeding in life. In this piece I placed the pile of history behind him, for as he proceeds forward he isn't looking both ways and acknowledging the past. If he did perhaps he would recognize the fall in front of him. The parachuter in the background is meant to symbolize how the past can save you if it is saved; where for one person it is threatening to drag them down, for the other it is lifting them down gently.
Text
I used text to make sense of the piece. I feel that if I hadn't added the text the piece wouldn't have made sense. The words in the top corner make sense of it because the piece has relatively flat depth, making the two most obvious directions the one in which the person is walking, and the one they're walking away from. Having the "past" clearly being the direction being ignored coupled with the warning sign and drop-off gives the piece its meaning.
Layering
I used layering in placing the images of the past. I did this to show the mass of things that can be learned from them. I also did this to express the bulk and weight these things hold (their importance).
2. I think that I was successful in this piece. The concept I wanted to communicate through this piece was that one has to learn from the past in order to effectively move forward, and if the past is disregarded one is doomed. In combining several postmodern principles together I was able to create this message. In incorporating a phrase that is associated with safety, and having a clear "direction" that is being ignored, I was able to show the error the person is committing.
Visually, the piece was designed based on the rule of thirds. I had the stone wall the man is walking on run along one of the third lines; the phrase is placed in the top left focal spot; the parachuter in the top right one. I chose to keep the stone wall monochromatic so that the load of past being dragged by the man didn't get lost in another collage element (which it did in the first design). I kept the background simple so that the relevant components of the piece could stand forward.
