Fragmented reality and space in postmodernity and perception of the body in art

Postmodernity emerged as a reaction to modernity in the second half of the 20th century in various genres and approaches. Although postmodernity and postmodernism are generally used in the same meaning, Giddens differentiated them by defining postmodernity as social and cultural development and postmodernism as developments in art. Because of the two big world wars made in the modern era, the massacres of European countries with the pledges of taking civilization to other countries, and genocide, the trust in rationalism and development decreased, and the reactions towards modernism led to the rise of postmodernism. Postmodernism, which at first developed in architecture as a reaction to the designs of modernism that imprisoned people, later showed itself in other forms of art and socio-cultural life. In order to gather data related to the research question, relevant literature was reviewed. Since the research carries a qualitative research feature, documentary scanning model is used when scanning models are considered. The changing perception of body in art is examined in depth based on the related literature along with the division of reality and space in postmodernity, and they are the basis of this thesis. The socio-cultural and cognitive division in postmodernity is studied in the research in conjunction with poststructural theory and deconstruction theory. Furthermore, in the light of ideational approach called deconstruction, reality in art, space and the changes in the perception of body and the changes in the postmodern era are examined. In the research suggested, the body itself is studied as reality, memory, writing, power, and space. The division of reality in postmodernity and the changing perception of body depending on the space are evaluated within the research over body art samples especially in 1960 and forward. The artists, who had tried to offer realism through a mimetic approach until the invention of photography, headed toward inner world with the invention of photography. Works of art in which the perception of reality is divided as much as possible were produced especially in Cubism. On the other hand, in the postmodern era, questioning of reality reached its peak with the developing technology. Baudrillard's Simulation Theory plays an important role in this issue. Baudrillard mentions a virtual reality which replaces reality itself. In relation to this, the perception of reality in postmodern art had changed and divided. Another target for questioning in the postmodern era is the space. Together with Cubism, the division of the perception of space was made possible on canvas, and later in the 1950s, new opportunities were provided by crossing the boundaries of canvas space with the application of assemblage technique in art. The most important feature of postmodern notion that affects different disciplines is presenting partial structures instead of totality. That is why; collage, pastiche, quotation, and intertextuality are some of the techniques used in works of art. In relation to space questionings about postmodern art, installation art, which is a postmodern art form, emerged with the division of space that started with Cubism and then by taking assemblage a step forward. Installation art, performance art, and the understanding of space in modern art were broken up. In the postmodern era, this perception was broken up by creating a sense of virtual space related to simulation theory. Since the 1960s, another significant issue that has been discussed is the questioning of gallery space, which is the most important space questioning. When the division of body is observed, it can be seen that it goes back to 1500s unlike the division of perception of reality and space. At first, Andreas Vasalius observed the body by dissectioning it. Then, although it was strictly forbidden by the church, Leonardo Da Vinci made drawings which proved that he observed the body by dissectioning it. In Romanticism, body dissection performances were drawn by Goya and Gericault in order to show the torture humans suffered from after the war. However, in Cubism there is a division in body like the division in reality and space. Along with the postmodern era, body became the object of art in some fields of art like performance art and body art, and the perception of body was divided in terms of the use of body. In addition, with Baudrillad's Simulation Theory there is a demand for virtual life for utopian purposes like virtual body and having no body. Technological developments led to changes in the perception of body and its division. In an environment where reality and delusion cannot be differentiated, where there is body dissection, sense of self and totality is lost, and where there is chaos and uncertainty, consciousness is divided as well. In the research, ontological analysis was also implemented on the selected samples of contemporary works of art which were created during the postmodern era and included division of reality, space, and body. The reasons for the divisions in postmodern art in terms of context and style are revealed through real and unreal existence layers in works of art using some samples.