Postmodernist theory is plural in that it cannot be represented by a singular, succinct definition since it is a response and resistance to the ideologies that preceded its dominance – henceforth there should be as many versions of postmodernism as there are the number of pre-existing modernist theories. This essay explores how through the lens of postmodernism being fundamentally a model based upon indeterminacy and pluralism, that the very concept of such an existence as the original is critiqued and challenged, in particularly the notion of the original gender and the original race in response to high modernism. The idea of something being the original is the belief that it is the most representational of its entity, the most authentic and real, uninformed by external factors and the fundamental root of which alteration and reproduction can stem from. This belief of the original is strongly correlated with high modernism’s unfaltering trust in science to provide reason, and its capability to order and reorder the world. In return, this catalyses a postmodern response of scepticism for scientific truth as everything and everyone is inherently a product of its social, political, cultural and historical structures and consequently any representational attributes are only a performative documentation of these contexts. Hence, there cannot be an embodiment of the original as all internalised truths are products of external experiences. This critique and challenge of the original is explored by the works of Sarah Lucas’ Two Fried Eggs and a Kebab and Carly Tarkari Dodd’s Sticks and Stones and in particular, the works explore the problematic role that the idea of the original gender and the original Indigenous persons play within our society and consumer culture.

During an age of significant technological advancements in the 1900s and the discovery of x- rays, came the high modernist belief that science is the most transparent and natural representation of mankind as it literally has the ability to reveal the “inner” most original composition of the body: the bone, the blood and the organs. It is noteworthy that high modernism utilises the concept of “inner” synonymously with “truth” which under a postmodernist outlook, can be explained by the context of industrial mass-production of the time. A time governed by machinery successfully blurs the structure of the human body with the body of the machine where the fundamental gears and mechanisms, (i.e. the origins of controlling the technology) is literally inside the shell of the machinery. Subsequently, it was also a time that constituted the binary genitalia of a penis and vagina as the destined origins of binary gender, and associated blood with a degree of purity, allowing it to be a scientific indicator of cultural identity.

This high modernist belief of biology being the natural origins that destine individuals with their performative penis-male, vagina-female binary gender attributes is critiqued under a pluralistic postmodern notion that nature itself is non-static, diverse, dynamic and queer; far more complex than a world replete with male-female reproduction (Lorange, 2021). Thus, the view of a coming utopia through regulating humanity with the most advanced scientific standard of heterosexuality, is critiqued by postmodernist theory as simply an idea that fixates on the establishment of normalcy, encourages stereotyping and neglects the existence of un-categorical genders and sexes (Talbot, 2008). Postmodernism not only challenges the notion of biological sex being originally gendered, it essentially questions the existence of nature itself being the embodiment of the original. It is the idea that nature is just culture that is repeatable and massively reproduced over time rather than some static source of originality. Accordingly, gender can then be described as a performative documentation in which the political and economic arena has required gender to be represented and as these norms change to serve new expectations so will the definition of nature itself (Lorange, 2021). This critique of the original gender is explored by Sarah Lucas’ installation Two Fried Eggs and a Kebab which consisted of two freshly cooked eggs and a kebab purposefully arranged on a wooden dining table, transforming itself into the most minimal and original female body: the breasts and vagina. By the end of the exhibition the grease of the food had engrained itself within the fibres of the wood and become an internal part of the table’s composition (Geng, 2021). The work cleverly showcases an exact analogy of how external ideologies, through repetition, no longer remains upon a surface level but actually becomes a set of deeply inscribed behaviours that despite being a real internal experience, is nonetheless superficially and culturally made. Stripping the installation of its “artistic” aura, the work is essentially no different to a science experiment that showcases how the atomic structures of external sources can fundamentally influence internal atomic compositions. By drawing parallels between artistic and scientific methods, the notion of art and science being mutually exclusive - art being subjective whilst science embodying truth, is deconstructed and effectively, Lucas utilises science itself to slaughter its own aura of legitimacy in being the original. It is noteworthy that the imprinted grease of the eggs and kebab were of differing shapes and outlines; thus the work not only critiques the original gender as a myth, but simultaneously exemplifies how even the external source itself is diverse; how nature and the definition of the original source is indeed, non-static.

The modernist notion of biology determining truth, is also correspondingly shown through its belief of blood being the origin of race. From 1910 to the 1940s Aboriginal identity was officially recognised by white sovereignty solely by blood such that the Commonwealth classified one’s degree of Aboriginality as either “full-blood”, “half-caste”, “quarter-caste” or “octoroon” (Korff, 2021). Genocidaly, beyond one-eighth, the stereotypical Indigenous appearance and blood is considered too wiped out for one to be culturally or racially Indigenous. There is no authority nor right for this essay to discuss what the identity of a light-skinned person with Indigenous ancestry is, rather the intention is to explore the complex and problematic colonial notion of the original Indigenous person through a postmodernist lens that challenges the ideology of biological composition and blood to be the determining parameters of racial identity. This concept was portrayed by Adelaide-born Kaurna, Narungga and Ngarrindjeri artist Carly Tarkari Dodd in her work Sticks and Stones which featured a series of framed, real-life portrait photographs of light-skinned people with Indigenous symbols and art surrounding their faces. Intermittently placed between the photographs were same sized mirrors that displayed phrases such as “what % Aboriginal are you”, poignantly rejecting the colonial categorisation of Aboriginality being “biological traits such as skin colour, nose shape and overall body shape” (ACE, 2020; Bennett, 2015). As the photographs and mirrors were purposely hung on the gallery wall at eye level, the viewer is affected by each portrait to reflect upon the concept of the original Indigenous person. Postmodernist theory proposes that social, political, cultural and historical worlds which we inhabit as being the ultimate structure that constructs identity. Thus, the work showcases how defining the authentic and original Indigenous person based on only biological appearance denies “the existence of actual Indigenous people, who, by adapting and changing, have survived colonialism” (Bennett, 2015). The work argues that individuals should not be considered less original or less authentic to their racial identity simply because their internal DNA carries less Indigenous blood. By challenging the concept of the original Indigenous person, Dodd questions with a postmodernist outlook that focuses identity upon the context and the attachments of emotional, intellectual and spiritual connections passed through the generations (Bennett, 2015), “I’m fair and don’t look like a stereotypical Aboriginal person – but what does an Aboriginal person look like?” (as cited in CityMag, 2020).

Although modernist theory is often recognised to have ‘bombed’ the late 19th to early 20th century, we are in the 21st century still riding its shockwaves despite postmodernism’s critiques and challenges. The question is, how come regardless of postmodernism utilising context to provide reason and creating greater egalitarianism in understanding social relations (Featherstone, 2007), the modernist notions of the original gender and the original race continues to remain prominent? For example, Lucas’ work which utilises foods to represent female genitalia reminds us that for the viewer to instantly recognise what the aesthetic created alludes to is to also showcase the resilient embedment of binary gender as the norm since the transformation of the suggestive everyday item takes place only in the mind (as cited in Burns, 2011). Similarly, in Dodd’s work, utilising Indigenous symbols and art to convey that the individuals are indeed Indigenous exposes the continued problematic settler narrative of recognising the original Indigenous person as one singular aesthetic that ignores intricacies such as “Aboriginal art should be as varied as Aboriginal people, and the political strength of Aboriginal art today may be that it is an expression of contemporary Aboriginal sovereignty in action” (Jones, 2010). This continuation of modernist ideologies is not because the masses do not recognise the fluidity in gender and sex or that blood is unrelated to racial identity – rather, it is that consumer culture, in the disguise of goods for purchase and consumption is actually a suiting weapon for the political arena to engineer and contain its population towards a set of normative structures that serve capitalistic profits (Featherstone, 2007). By continuing the narrative of the original binary gender, it becomes much easier to market to a population that consists of Mrs. Consumer indulging in the seductive products of the domestic sphere and Mr. Breadwinner revelling in products that portray power and masculinity (Scanlon 2000). Likewise, it is most profitable to exploit the notion of the original Indigenous person, as it ultimately gives consumers a romanticised interaction with Aboriginal paintings, clapping sticks, healing stones, tjurunga boards, Aboriginal herbal medicines, emu-oil salves and didgeridoos, Aboriginal ‘Dreaming’ tours that visit Aboriginal places and Vision Quests that draw on Aboriginal imagery.” (Muir, 2007). The contemporary world is essentially a paradox of mentally acknowledging postmodernist beliefs, whilst contradictorily reproducing modernist ideologies within the ever-growing consumer culture.

Perhaps it is not completely within postmodernism’s capability to change the ideological manipulation embedded within our consumer culture, however it is undoubtedly within postmodernist theory’s capacity to call for awareness, critique, challenge and resist the modernist notions of the original gender and the original race.