The Anti-Aesthetes

Things appear to mean something by themselves. Representation- our illusory senses of self and reality are composed. Clarity is the enemy (initially this statement seemed contradictory to me. It seems self-defeating that clarity be the enemy. I feel I have been searching my whole life for clarity. . . but after reading the essay in entirety, this statement makes more sense to me.). Poststructuralism is married to postmodernism. I need to refresh myself on the meanings of poststructuralism and deconstruction. Are these terms synonymous? They deal with the subject of language and the sign and so on, right? I really like the concept of unearthing the contradictions hidden in ideological constructs.
On the top of pg. 30 it talks about subjects being jostled together in a way that encourages and undermines meaningful associations. With this idea of meaningless art, I am reminded of dada. I know this is a different concept, I was just put in mind of it.
Richter notes that he likes to use images from the mass media because they liberate him from personal experience. This seems counter to what I consider art. When I think of an artist creating, I imagine him exuding personal experience and self-expression. The act of creating art is a personal experience. Salle's works are said to deliberately suppress any hint of self-expression. I find this ironic. And also ironic is that I find many of the works in this section aesthetically pleasing, and they are called anti-aesthetes. I am particularly drawn to the works of Polke, Richter, Longo, Rosenquist, Salle, and Baldessari.
I like these lines:
'They are dead, inert representations of the impossibility of passion in a culture that has institutionalized self expression.'
'The camera, in all its manifestations, is our god, dispensing what we mistakenly take to be truth. The Photograph is the modern world.'

Obama won.