Topic 7: WORDS and PICTURES
Reading Barthes, my main reflections are:
Images show something. What that something means depends on the viewer (receiver) of the image. It is not the thing or the image (the output) that created the meaning. The emitter controls the output but not how the output is received. However, the use of accompanying words provides addition output which can me more succinctly employed by the emitter to steer or amplify the intended meaning upon the receiver.
There are overlaps with phenomenology. For example, a chair presents itself to our consciousness as a thing (noesis). In its rawest, unfiltered form it is solely an object we have perceived. Or consciousness brings meaning to this perception so we perceive it as a something called a ‘chair’. This idealised concept (noema) is a construct. The physical chair has no real connection to it aside from those in the subject’s mind. Along with the concept of ‘chair’ comes other concepts; sitting, rest, furniture, bottom, legs, body, weight, support etc. These too add to the meaning assigned to the chair. In Barthes’ account the former can be seen as the denoted, and the latter as the connoted. His example of the photo of JFK illustrated this. Without knowledge of all the connoted constructs (power, virtue etc) the image shows a figure with his hands together (a chair). However, Barthes introduces the text or words as an extending device which ‘quickens’ the connoted meaning in image. (p23)
I was interested in his idea that the very act of objectivity is the ‘very sign of objectivity’ (p18). I see correlations here with some of my work. The non-art style I have used is in fact a style which communicates sincereness and intellectualism. I am aware of this and have begun to understand my work as a set-up or staging sincerity. This is something I would like to explore further or even disrupt. I have used objective titles in my practice to imbue objectivity. I have borrowed this method from conceptualism and minimalism. Usually the title describes the images or series of images in very fundamental terms eg. 18 Art Department Doorstops. I have considered these necessary as although they are merely descriptive they communicate my method, the context and imbue meaning, the seed of a narrative. They also connote that this work is connected both in style and intention with the historical art modes mentioned above. By titling the work as such I am shortcutting to associations with the likes of Andre, Nauman and Ruscha.
Chris Finnegan, 2016. 18 Art Department Doorstops
Author’s own image
Ed Ruscha, 1963. Twenty-six Gasoline Stations
Image available here
I had thought about this work by Nauman before reading the Barthes text. Having done so I was excited to read one of my favourite series by one of my most loved artists through Barthes’ lens.
Bruce Nauman 1966-67/70. Untitled (Eleven Colour Photographs). Available here
In Untitled (Eleven Colour Photographs) Nauman employs image and caption to set up or present absurd visual scenarios. Nauman is well-known for his use of language in his work. He has a particular compulsion to puns and jokes, what he describes as ‘word-game things’1. Indeed, Nauman sees the edges and limits of language to be the most interesting area of communication and likes to play with language as it breaks down 2.
Bruce Nauman 1966-67/1970. Feet of Clay, from the portfolio Eleven Colour Photographs. Available here.
Taking Feet of Clay as an example we can read the associated title as what Barthes terms a double-structure3. This phrase can be seen to denote what is in the photograph (feet concealed in clay shaped to resemble feet) whilst also connoting the adage for a hidden flaw. This titling method is repeated across much of the series: Bound to Fail, Waxing Hot, Eating My Words. Where this approach varies Nauman employs purely descriptive titles (Coffee Thrown Away Because It Was too Cold) and in one case Untitled. Whilst contrasting with the titling approach outlined above these simpler methods reflect Barthe’s assertion that act of objectivity is always read as ‘the very sign of objectivity’4.
1. PIRENNE Raphaël 2013. ‘Eleven Color Photographs Nauman, Man Ray and Wittgenstein: The Skepticism of the Medium’. In PIRENNE, Raphaël and Alexander STREITBERGER (eds.). 2013. Heterogeneous Objects: Intermedia and Photography after Modernism. Leuven, [Belgium]: Leuven University Press. pp.48
2. Tate.org ca.2006. Bruce Nauman:Make Me Think Me Educators’ Pack. Liverpool: Tate Liverpool. pp.3
3. BARTHES, Roland and Stephen HEATH. 1977. Image, Music, Text: Essays. 13. [Dr.]. London: Fontana. pp. 22
4. ibid.
