Semiotics

The importance of signs and the relative significance has been recognized throughout history by philosophy and psychology. Plato and Aristotele explored the relationship between signs and the world.

So what exactly is Semiotics?

It is the study of sign process and the relation between signs and the things to wich they refer and their effects on those who use them. ‘Mythologies’ by French semiotician Roland Barthes examines the tendency of the contemporary social value system to create modern myths. Considering bourgeois culture he attempts to show how a photographic image could be used to represent implied meanings in society, its myths. Barthes also explores the essence of photography and the effects on the spectator wich I belive is a foundamental part of todays advertising where the images are carefully planned to create an interaction with the viewer. To make it happen its necessary to include signs and symbols that are reconised by the public. Let’s take in considertion one of the leader clothes company in the world. The registrated trademark Diesel has launched a new campaign titled: ‘SEX SELLERS, unfortunately we sell jeans’. The picture shown represent an intimate moment of a couple, when the woman is sitting on the top of the man in a explicit sexual position.

The actual body of the models has been taked off in the post-production, so what has been left in the frame is just the jeans. This is a clever idea because the viewer will see first the products and then realise the ambiguity of the position.

The subliminal message in this case is defenetely clear: sex.

With this beautiful pair of expencive new Diesel jeans you will look cool and because of that you will have sex.

Do we belive that?

Bibliography:

·Mythologies, by Roland Barthes, 1993

·Introducing Semiotics by Paul Cobley and Litza Jansz 2004

·A theory of semiotics, Umberto Eco, Indiana University Press 1976

·Writing the image after Roland Barthes, University of Pennsylvania Press 1997

·diesel.com

Modernism-Postmodernism

The question of Postmodernism is in a cultural debate and its meaning is difficult to grasp. Hovewer many philosophers and literary theorist have met in conferences trying to underline the main points. I researched materials from ICA (Institute of Contemporary Arts) focused on the major conference held in 1985 on the Philosophical Dimensions of the Post Modern Debate. The term comes from it’s rejection of the modern scientific mentality of objectivity and progress associated with the enlightenment. The start of the period of postmodern art has been dated after the modernist era (1948-1969). Generally Postmodernism is a tendency in contemporary culture characterized by the rejection of the objective truth and global cultural narrative. The main modernist ideas of authenticity, formal purity, universality, originality, avant-gard, advancment or progress in art and Paradox are now rejected. Characteristic of postmodern art is its combination of high and low colture through the use of industrial materials and the mixing of different artistic styles and media. The recent history of art that focuses particularly on Pop, Minimalism and Conceptualism combined with the use of Intermedia, Instalation art, Multimedia and video are currently described as postmodernist. For instance the use of large colour trasparency mounted on a light box is charactheristic in Jeff Wall’s work. The Canadian artist was born in Vancouver, british Columbia in 1946. His pictures have a distinctive presence, rich in detail and descripition leading to tableu photography. Most of the photographs are displayed in a large scale that physically draws us into the pictorial space. The picture shown above titled ‘Insomnia’ is made with compositional devicies similar to reinassance paintng, the angles and objects of a kitchen scene suggest our understaing of the action and narrative. It describes the state of mind of man during the night time and the stress provoked by the lack of sleep. His work has been a source of information and inspiration for my last project especially in terms of the use of the light box wich I belive suggests a spectacular physical experience.

Reference:

·Introducing Postmodernism by Richard Appignanesi (Author), Chris Garratt (Author), 2007

·Postmodernism ICA Documents by Lisa Appignanesi London 1989

·Postmodernism and Society 1990 by Roy Boyne and Ali Rattansi

·Postmodern Culture 1985 by Hal Foster

·Jeff Wall Catalogue Raisonne’ 1978-2004

·Jeff Wall by Peter Galassi

·The photograph as contemporary art. Charlotte Cotton

·time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1592850,00.html

Feminism

Shirin Neshat, Rebellious silence 1994.

Feminism is a term that refers to political, social, and economic movements aimed at establishing greater rights and legal protections for women as for men. The issue of rights for women first became prominent during the French and American revolutions in the late 18th century. In Britain it was not until the birth of the suffragette movement in the late 19th century that there was a significant political change. Many artist have taken in consideration women and feminism as a topic to investigate and create. It is a central subject for the Iranian visual artist Shirin Neshat who works with a range of different media, primarly video, film and photography. Her work refers to the social, cultural and religious codes of Muslim societies and the complexity of certain oppositions, such as man and woman. In her first body of work “Women of Allah” she uses poems of feminist contemporary poets partly shown in the images. In this series she is questioning issues related to fundamentalism, religion and women’s role in the Middle East. Examining the troubled position of Iranian women she reflects on personal memories of her homeland. Memories that include wearing a chador to Mosque, expressed by applying quotes from Iranian feminst poets directly onto the surface of the photographs in black and red ink.

Bibliography:

·Introducing Feminism, by Cathia Jenainati (Author), Judy Groves (Illustrator) 2007

·Feminism and History, Joan W Scott, Oxford University Press 2001

·Shirin Neshat, Kunsthalle Wien, Serpentine Gallery 2000

·artspeak.ca/exibitions_67

·en.wikipedia.org/Shirin_Neshat

·guardian.co.uk/2000/jul/22

Philip-Lorca diCorcia

Philip-Lorca diCorcia’s ‘Hollywood’ series has set a model for contemporary art photography.

The subjects of his photos are people he met in the street and asked to pose for a certain amount of money they had accorded.

The title of the image will tell you the name and the age of the person, the place he was born and how much the artist paid him for pose.

The picture above represents a naked young man from the waist upwards and shown through the window of a diner. What do we imagine?

And why is this young man posing without shirt for 25 dollars? It peraphs makes us think that he hasn’t much money and is using his body for a small profit. The experts suggests an association with the sex industry.

However he always encouraged a kind of story telling in the viewer’s mind inspiring an awarness of the psycology and emotions contained in real life situations.

His work can be described as documentary photography mixed with the fictional world of cinema and advertising wich create a powerful link between reality, fantasy and desire.

His use of light is always dramatic and often described as cinematic when creating a simulated naturalism.

A theatrical and psychological athmosphere is added by working in the particular time of the day of surise or sunset, when the combination of natural and artificial light encourages a dramatic sense of place and narrative.

I found his work inspiring and exeptionally original in the field of contemporary art.

Bibliography:

·A storybook life. Philip-Lorca DiCorcia. Santa Fe N.M 2004

· steidlville.com/books/530-Thousand.html

· lslimited.com/dicorcia/pl.html

·artscenecal.com/ArticlesFile/Archive/Articles

1997/Articles1097/PdiCorciaA.html

· en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip-Lorca_diCorcia

Todd Hido

The presence of absence, isolation, anonymity, darkness, loneliness, loss, malincholy. This is what I felt looking at Todd Hido’s large, detailed and luminous photographs. The american contemporary artist and photographer focuses his work on urban and suburban housing and landscapes across the United States. His landscapes are viewed mostly through the blurry haze of a car when the rain falls on the window. Riding through southern and western parts of U.S the artist shoots random photographs of snowy roads, bleak fields, bare trees, bridges understructures,with a soft light that gives the feeling that something is going to happen. His urban and suburban housing series convey the feeling of a ghostly presence fused with the sense of fragility of the physical and idiological structures where we shelter ourselves. The weather and the atmosphere play a central role such as the passing dark clouds that give a feeling of time passing. Not only enjoyng the beautiful view as a classic conception he examines and picks instants of sublimity in the contemplation of nature. The viewer is encouraged to place himself in the photographer’s position while he offers the experience of sublime nature. Hido as the impressionists and J.M.W Turner concentrates on light and the ephemeral atmospheric effects emphasised by long exposures. His portraits are always shoot in a room, an enclosed space. They suggest a psychological, emotional and sexual interiority, the vulnerability of the personal and the interior spaces. References to our unsafe and unstable society are clear.

Discovering recently Hido’s work I found a part of myself in his pictures and from now on he will be an important reference.

Reference:

·en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Todd_Hido

·query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C01EEDB153BF93BA35753C1A9629C8B6

·kemperart.org/exhibits/CatalogEssays/hidotodd.asp

Stephen Shore

One of photography’s principal figures is American photographer Stephen Shore. A pioneer in the art of colour photography his work he opened a new direction in the 1970s.

Influenced at an early age by Walker Evans, he selled his first picture to the director of the MOMA (Edward Steichen) at the age of 14. When he was 17 he began to frequent Andy Warhol’s studio ‘the Factory’ documenting this creative scene.

His first solo exibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art was at the age of 24.

His first book ‘Uncommon Places’ is a selection of photographs of American and Canadian landscapes made during a series of cross-country trips. The common places are shown as ordinary scenes of everyday life in which he finds a richness of meanings.

His well known deadpan and banal images of objects and situations in the U.S show scenes of american life that reveal the archetypal in the everyday.

His style was probably infuenced by Warhol’s general deadpan aesthetic with its embrace of serialism and its fixation on banal, everyday things. He captured the images with a 8x10 camera with rigorous concerns and technical considerations of balance, point of view and exploring the perceptions of space and time. His work has inspired many photographers and artists such as William Egglston, Nan Goldin, Martin Parr, Andreas Gursky and many more;he had a profound impact on contemporary fine art photography. I belive Shore is one of the masters of contemporary art photography and I find his work a resource of visual and technical informations for everyone interested in visual arts.

Bibliography:

·Uncommon Places: the complete works, Stephan Schmidt-Wulffen (Author), 2004

·3 minute wondet Deutsche Borse photography prize Part 3 Stephen Shore 2005

·jaymovies.com/2006/05/stephen_shore.html

·nytimes.com/2007/05/18/arts/design/18shor.html

?ex=1337140800&en=1b90ff9e22350ca6&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

·theartnewspaper.tv/content

Robert Frank

Robert Frank is an important figure in american photography, film and art history. His most notable work is the black and white photographic book titled ‘The Americans’ (1959) that was influential in the post-war period and helped the nation to see itself more clearly.

In 1955 he started a two year road trip across the United States and photographed its society in the main American Cities such as Detroit, Michigan, Georgia, Maiami, St.Petersburg, Florida, New Orleans, Louisiana, Huston, Texas, Los Angeles, Chicago and much more. In that time he took an incredible amount of shots, around 28,000 and later selected only 83 for the publication of the book. After returning to New York in 1957, Frank met writer Jack Kerouac which contributed to the introduction of the U.S. edition of “The Americans”. In this book the photographers intention is to investigate American culture and its diversity. He documented the tensions between the optimism of the 1950s and the realities of class and racial differences. America is symbolized in his work by jukeboxes, graves, urinals, crosses, tenements, trolleys, bars, cafeterias and department stores. Frank looks beneath the surface of american life to reveal people plagued by racism, ill-served by their politicians and rendered numb by the rapidly expanding consumer culture. I belive this book is one of the strongest reportage ever made in the U.S.

Bibliography:

·The Americans, Robert Frank and Jack Kerouak (Author) 2008

·Robert Frank: London Wales, Steidl Publishers 2007

·Robert Frank, Video ITV1 2004

·transmopolitis.com/2009/09/robert-franks-masterpierce-the-americans

·tate.or.uk/modern/exibitions/frank/about