The Semiotics of the Real Object and the Role of Its Representation in Making Artworks

 
 
Some artworks seek to express a new concept by representing and replacing the everyday subject to invite the audience to reflect on everyday life. In view of this, this article intends to deal with the importance and method of producing artwork using present and everyday topics through the method of qualitative semiotics. By raising the question of how everyday issues lead to semantic implications and artistic objects, they invite the audience to reflect on the normal phenomena of everyday life.
According to the findings of this research, it can be acknowledged that since the work of art can be known and interpreted only by the relationship and through the relationship with the real element, the everyday element or the real thing is considered a document, as well as the works of art with the representation and substitution of the object. The original, not only by expressing the idea but also by using methods such as defamiliarization, deconstruction, emphasizing and replacing the everyday element and the place of display of the artwork, achieve new meaning and concept and create surprises. These works of art create meaning by emphasizing the everyday things that have become boring due to repetition and encourage the audience to reflect. The results of this study, which deals with the influencing factors and their comparison in different works, are shown separately in Table No. 1.
Case examples: Victor Burgin, Mehran Tamadon, William Anastasia, Farhad Fakhrian, Kenneth Josephsen, Robert Smithson.
Changing the direction of familiar rules in art requires crossing the range of familiar processes of the past and defamiliarizing them. In explaining his reflections, Charles Sanders Peirce calls the symbolic process the interaction between semiotics property, interpretation, and representation. In other words, the signification process is an interaction that exists continuously between signs and the outside world, signs in relation to each other, and signs with their audience.
Based on this, paying attention to the common relationships between defamiliarization and the symbolic process leads to a more appropriate understanding and acceptance of artistic creation, which is based on the system of signs above all else. Because the system of signs, at the same time as it examines its structural features based on the process of its origin, its meaning, and applications, always establishes a relationship with different processes of perception. Perception is a way of discovering that in its evolutionary process and in the transition from the objective form of the sign in order to receive its inner meaning, it always establishes a changing and variable interaction with thought, imagination, and experience.
Showing the objects of daily life and inviting the audience to reflect and think about them in such a way can lead to the creation of conceptual art, the most important aspect of which is thought and reflection on the mundane matters of life. Also, since the subject of the works of daily life is completely derived from the real thing, with the most similarity to the subject, they are considered to be symbolic signs, which sometimes play the role of a symbol and sometimes only through expression with a new media (photography or painting). They have found the role of index plays a fundamental and central role in conveying the meaning and concept of the artwork.
The study of works of art, whose subject and centrality are taken from the heart of everyday life, is the source of writing this article. Also, by studying the theories of deconstructionists such as Roman Jakobson and modern semiotics such as Peirce, we can conclude that the use of media (especially photography and painting) to represent every day and also the use of symbolic meanings plays a fundamental role in some works of art. Getting rid of the habit and repetition of everyday life and mundane subjects and taking refuge in imagination and also using the power of thought in creating artwork helps artists. For this purpose, the works of Iranian and non-Iranian artists have been used as examples and better presentations.
Research method: This article was written using the method of semiotics, and the method of collecting its sources was literature review.
Semiotics
Semiotics is one of the important forms of semiotics (Ezkia, 1396:169). It can also be acknowledged that semiotics is one of the most common and valuable research methods. And in fact, it can be claimed that semiotics is a method that every researcher is somehow related to. In this method, there is no need to collect information. In fact, the information already exists and only needs to be deduced or analysed. In this method, the role of the researcher's thinking is more than his theories and information (Saroukhani, 2013: 279). In fact, semiotics is a way of classifying signs and describing the explicit content of the message (Krippendorf, 2013: 217). Semiotics is a method to recognize and highlight the important points of a text (or photo, video, etc.) (Saroukhani, 2013: 281). One of the common techniques in semiotics is the use of signs. According to Peirce, the index has a causal link with the event that is considered its sign - such as smoke, which represents fire - rather than based on a symbol or simile (Krippendorf, 1383: 57). In the qualitative semiotics method, the researcher is trying to establish a balance between description and interpretation (Ezkia, 2016:229). In short, the semiotics method has evolved into a scientific method that promises to yield conclusions obtained from symbolic and communication data. The semiotics looks for two types of reality: the reality of the data and the reality of what the researcher wants to know. These two facts do not interfere with semiotics, and the researcher must discover a way to consider analysable data as a symbol or sign.
Perhaps, Stonehenge can be mentioned as the first example of the implementation of everyday things in order to create a work of art in everyday life and because of their implementation in open spaces and unpaid procedures. This work creates a kind of visual transition between the earth and the sky, but because it is made by human hands and expresses cultural concepts, it is different from nature (Adams, 1392: 19). Levitt started drawing on the wall in 1968. Painting on paper and sticking it to the wall seemed natural, but painting directly on the brick or plaster of the wall made the design a part of the architecture of that space (Archer, 2018: 73). With the difference that his paintings were not from the same wall or environment. What is considered deconstructive in Levitt's work was the use of painting on non-conventional and non-art materials (bricks or walls), which was considered a new sign for citizens. A symbol of the application of art in everyday life.
There was a time when the boundaries seemed clearer than this, the work of art was one thing and the things people said and wrote about it were another. Earlier, minimalism realized that the meaning of the art object, to a large extent, lies outside itself, in its relationship with the surrounding environment. And now, conceptualism brought criticism and analysis to the scope of art creation. At one time, we only saw paintings and sculptures in exhibitions, but today documents, documents, maps, photos, program explanations, and various information constitute the works of artists (ibid.: 80).
According to the mentioned examples, the present article aims to introduce works that either their subject matter or their constituent material is not taken into consideration in everyday life. But when they become the subject of a work of art, they are considered art without any deficiency, only in the form of art, be it photography or painting.
In this sample of works, the representation and replacement of the everyday thing with artwork that shows the same subject were one of the concerns of the artists to create the artwork. Audiences passing by the place every day and facing the same subject that they considered normal, now only through the raw material of the artwork in the form of a photo or painting, they defamiliarize it and by showing the work. And replacing it with everyday matters, they invite the audience to reflect on everyday phenomena. The necessity of deconstruction in order to "alienate" with methods such as forming ambiguity in the meaning of the work, eliminating visual habits, performing the artwork outside the gallery, or displaying non-artistic material in the gallery and paying more and more attention to everyday life. And the praise of the real thing and the place of representation or display of the work takes place. In this article, an attempt was made to discuss the works that the artist created by using the representation of the real element in everyday life, which is considered normal and the place where the work of art is displayed and made the audience think about the work of art, its raw material, the idea of formation and the world around it invites. In fact, this representation helps the viewer to have a better understanding of the world around him and to observe aspects of it that he has not paid attention to until now. What surprises the audience of these works the most are the symbolic signs of the works that were created without the slightest change or difference from the raw material or the real thing, and by displaying on the material accepted for the performance of the work of art or other places. Art has become a work of art.