So does this mean this isnt actually a blog?? But its a computer simulation with billions of pixels that make up these colours and words that I see on the screen...So my eyes are seeing this, reconstructing the image, sending it to my cerebreal cortex and voila!! Okay well Semiotics actually remind me of those reaaaaalllly smart pictures that someone drew where you see a picture of someone reading a book, and the cover of the book is the same as the picture you're looking and and it goes onnnn and onnnnn till like infinity...I cant find the picture im talking about but I'm sure you get the idea.The Gallery visit was amazing, Yinka Shinabore's artworks were amazing. But I was more impressed with Gary Hill's exhibition, I especially enjoyed the first one we went to see called Accordions [The Belsunce Recordings, July 2001] I remember Grant saying before we went, 'to give yourself time to actually see the video work, dont just walk in and out'. And now I regret not staying longer in that room. But for those few minutes I was in there, my body went into total shock mode, I wanted to run out, I didnt understand what was going on, I felt alone and isolated faced with these eerie noise's coming from the projections, the ever increasing speed of the broken images, it all confussed the hell out of me. I had no idea which one to look at first or how long I should stay there, thats what captivated me, and I could see by others faces that they were just as confussed as me. I had to physicaly walk around, and try to see what was going on. From the few that I did see I gathered that I was faced with projections of people, in an environment that sort of reminded me of a grungy vampire movie like Van Helsing. I later found out that these projections were of the daily lifes of people from an Algerian town. The speed and the apruptness of the projections made it seem that the town was chaotic, the colour was grimey, the broken noises added to the effect of the chaotic environment of the town, and I must say that the quality of the images were amazing. I would imagine that this little town would be quaint, quiet and not at all like the images I was faced with. They created this sort of chaos within me, where images of the war in Iraq came to my mind. I learnt with further research at home that the video was 'A statement by the artist which indicates his intention to create portraits of these individuals in real time. Further complicating matters, the five projections are not synchronized' - Taken from the website http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1248/is_3_91/ai_98541231 written by Brant Publications Inc. The whole semiotics thing confusses me a bit, which is kind of like hmmmm why should it since I've been doing it since I was born! I do remember slightly touching upon this in Art History in college where the teacher says we all see different images of cats in our mind, haha and if we put all those images together we'd see a really strange cat [and funnily enough in listening to a song about a cat, yes, I go off track often]. When faced with images on a screen or a wall or and artwork we put into action the 'sign', the 'signifier' and the 'signified'. Now, unraveling the work using semiotics...Okay, well I wish that they have 'Semiotics For Dummies' But here goes, the 'signifier' is the images of all the faces in projection on the wall that we see, the 'signified' is that these people are in a town going about their everyday life or as said before '...artist which indicates his intention to create portraits of these individuals in real time.' and the 'sign' being the union of the two suggests that we get to see the life of people that we dont know, millions of miles away living their life in a totally different environment of our own, possibly showing us that these people live simple lives and that we take for granted the little things??
I realy hope I have it all right, I think I may have over complicated it all. But semiotics is rather brilliant, even if I dont understand any of it.
Over and out.
Thanks Kerrie another thoughtful entry.
ReplyDeleteThe blog is a blog is a blog because it is itself rather than a representation of itself. The blog exists nowhere else however, the words that you type into it are signifiers for your runaway thoughts that are the signified. You could say that when you feel that the words you write accurately represent the thoughts in your head that the sign is complete.
Pleased that you enjoyed the Gary Hill. You can always go back for a second viewing. The work you saw will be replaced soon with another five projection work called Heard and Hand - a much quieter but equally mystifying piece. Whose hands are they? the gallery is open on Saturdays if you are in the city.
I enjoyed very much your writing of your body experiencing the work - that is what I was looking for.
There is in fact a book called Semiotics for Dummies in the . . . . for Dummies series and worth looking at. Unfortunately it is not in the MSVA library.
You are certainly on the right track with your semiotic reading of the work. Hill says that he is interested in the faces rather than the city but what can an image tell us. Remember the signified is the idea of the thing that the signifier points to so is the idea the idea of the actual person or is it the idea of Algeria? Is a place the buildings that construct it or the people that inhabit the buildings or the encounter between the two. You may recall that some of the portraits are studio based against a black background while others are zooomed from wide shots - some contextualised by their environment others held in a void. perhaps that differnece is important to the work.
The fact that you do not offer a conclusive answer does not concern me, much more important is that you are asking strong questions. keep up the good work. cheers grant