Spatial Prominence in the Artwork's Foreground - Term Paper Example

Ruscha – Formalist analysis Ed Ruscha's Large Trademark with Eight Spotlights (1962) relies on strong directional lines to create a feeling of momentum and imposition within the artwork's frame. Roughly divided into two triangular shapes, the image presents a graduating and expanding white, opaque space that grows in width from the bottom right hand corner - the point of its genesis - to a location near the top left hand corner where it merges into the large slogan that forms the piece's focal point. The background against which the light and wording is set is reminiscent of night - but with the total blackness of its landscape lightened to greyness by the imposing luminescence of the dominant light projection. The large words - '20th Century Fox' are represented visually as being three dimensional against the ashen background - an effect that adds both depth and dimension while creating the illusion that the logo is being projected to a position of spatial prominence in the artwork's foreground. The logo is coloured in red and orange tones, deferring to realistic lighting effects and shade variations as the colours appear slightly muted towards what is presented as being the logo's foreground. But other elements of the work are strangely inconsistent, perhaps in the interests of theoretical allusion, with what would be expected if the scene were viewed in reality. The eight yellow spotlights inter-crossing each other behind the logo are traditionally seen - when the logo is depicted before movies or on television - to penetrate, cross over and intermingle with the sturdy commercial monolith. In Ruscha's depiction, however, they are shown as being unable to penetrate the white opaque light source that projects the wording, and instead are partially blocked by its presence. The spotlights - supposedly for the purpose of illuminating desired features and drawing the attention of spectators - are feeble in comparison to the generating light force behind the imposing logo. Intrinsic within the marketing insignia itself seems to be an otherworldly, ethereal body of light - white and pure and absolute, while the accompanying spotlights possess a yellow, opacity that fails to lighten the nightscape, nor impinge upon the density of the red/orange hues of the logo. The juxtaposition seems to assert a difference between what is real, what is not real and what is contrived - what is genuine, and what is manufactured - positioned against the backdrop of the movie industry and its many illusions. Stylistically, Ruscha has adopted a rigid assemblage style without mergers – a compositional approach that adds to the artwork’s impact with its clear lines and sure geometric delineations. Ruscha – Psychoanalytic analysis Ed Ruscha's Large Trademark with Eight Spotlights (1962) may at first appear to be a cultural snapshot of a piece of recognised movie industry iconography. But within this seemingly simple representation of a familiar symbol lie a plethora of contextualised meaning, sub-meanings and allusions. Within Lacanian psycho-analytic theory, the power of images as vehicles for multiple meaning is central to understanding the creative impulse. According to Kelly Oliver (177): "Lacan establishes a parallel between the figures of metaphor (the substitution of one term for another, as in 'Juliet is the sun') and metonymy (the substitution of the whole for the part, and the contiguous relations between chains of signifiers). These are described as the two main axes of language, and they are likened to condensation and displacement (respectively the condensation of multiple meanings into a single dream image, and the transfer of libido from one image to another) . .In other words, for Lacan, the unconscious is structured like a language." Within a Lacanian understanding - Trademark is a potent image reflecting a group consciousness that is interconnected with our own individual identities - and subsequently merging the two. Sigmund Freud espoused the existence of universal urges behind many of his theories - holding the human consciousness as holding features in common, irrespective of individual experiences or personalities. According to David Macey: "Freud also speaks of 'typical' dreams that appear to be universal. At times he speculates that they represent actual events that occurred in humanity's early history or prehistory." (119) In Trademark, the aspect of the mass cultural consciousness that has been seduced by the Hollywood dream is placed in the 'spotlight', a revelation of a shared psychic fascination.1 The existence of a certain mutual psychology across generations and large groups of people within a cultural framework is given impetus by both technology and the mass media - elements that work to generate virtual experiences and shared pop culture narratives that create a framework in common and a template for psychoanalytic synthesis. The 20th Century image is not personalised, but nor can it be extricated from the inner psychology of any individual who has been raised within a culture that deifies movie stardom and its proponents. The projection of one's image onto the silver screen is the ultimate ego gratification, the ultimate realisation of the self - it is also a means of immortality, and a means of securing the desire of the opposite sex. Macey looks at the connection between energy, desire and our creative impulses: "The underlying mechanism behind all creativity is that of sublimation, the transfer or displacement of sexual energy or libido into more socially or aesthetically acceptable forms." (120) The link between cinema or television and voyeuristic desire or fantasy is an obvious one, and one that could be said to be somewhat cauterised by the image of Trademark, particularly if the artwork is viewed from an Ego-psychology perspective. Macey (121/122) explains: "Ego-psychology holds that the content of the unconscious can be made conscious and integrated into a rational ego, which is then amenable to integration into social norms. This is achieved at the cost of resistance to the instinctual demands of the unconscious and their repression…. Art allows the creator to experience forms of pleasure or gratification that are not permissible in real life thanks to the ego's manipulation of the mechanisms of sublimation and a sort of vicarious regression. The reader's or viewer's vicarious identification with the artist is, in its turn, the source of his or her pleasure." (121-122) It is the psycho-analytic commonality of a cross-cultural vision - such as the one depicted in Trademark - that gives the artwork its resonance. Within the objects-relation theory of post-Freudian psycho-analysis applied to art, the object or focal point of the artwork is identified in a similar vein to the mother or maternal figure. Through the creative process, the artist is repairing damage done to the child-mother bond.2 In this sense, the image of a mass media symbol projected by spotlights and rendered three dimensional on an enormous canvas, is a form of recognition of popular culture as a shared, exploited and perversely hallowed nurturer of subliminal desires. Whether the images projected on the screen are family ideals, physically desirable individuals or a world above and beyond the mundanity of everyday life - they nurture and feed a hunger within the modern consciousness.3 Ruscha - Historical analysis Within the framework of art history, Ed Ruscha's work - including Large Trademark with Eight Spotlights (1962) - is notoriously difficult to classify. A cursory examination of Trademark may define it as Pop Art, but many critics have noticed more going on beneath the surface of Ruscha's works than this genre can accurately codify. There are Pop Art elements - such as visual and textual references to commercialism, marketing and mass production, and a certain parodic irreverence for the conventions of Abstract Expressionism - but there are also aspects that allude to the sensibilities of Conceptual Art. But, unlike the repetitious, de-valuing of objects and uniformity of process that typified the Pop Art movement, Ruscha's treatment of objects and images does not tend to reduce their complexity or permit them to be over-shadowed by the weight of cultural signage and imagery that surrounds them. Rather than reduce or disempower his subject matter in Trademark, Ruscha attributes it with an added element of drama and presence. It is a more accurate, multi-dimensional representation of the company logo and its many associative tiers - which were informed by a culture that seemed to worship the lights of Hollywood, deifying its stars and glamorising its blatant commodification of personality, beauty and talent. Trademark, like much of Ruscha's work, depends upon context and associationism for much of its impact. As such, its historical position - whether through the lens of the art world or on a broader social stage - serves to add shades of meaning and depth that go beyond the purely semantic. The artwork relies heavily on its dominant image, swathed in spotlights and projected to appear three-dimensional. In reality, the artwork itself was large and imposing. Ruscha was attempting to pack a punch that did the phenomenon of the silver screen justice, and in the process he captured a moment in time where the experience of life and the influence of popular culture on the lives of everyday people was both definitive and long-lasting.4 Just as the logo in Trademark seems to be almost invasive in its declaration - so had the world of consumerism invaded the realm of aesthetics - thanks largely to Pop Art. The use of popular imagery, slogans and consumer iconography in art was a major stylistic change that opened the door for artists like Ruscha to continue an exploration of the schism between art and culture, self and society. In this sense, the specific cultural historical climate within which Trademark was created - was an integral part of its realisation. Ruscha – Semiotic analysis "We should have a great fewer disputes in the world if words were taken for what they are, the signs of our ideas only, and not for things themselves." - John Locke Ruscha's use of semiotics to convey ideas in Large Trademark with Eight Spotlights (1962) is an example of the power of images, the power of words - and the impact that can be brought about when these two systems of meaning merge. In choosing the 20th Century Fox trademark as the focal point of his artwork, Ruscha has cross-referenced the visual and the semiotic - creating a visual image of a word that contains the contextual associations of an industry concerned with imagery. It is a Russian doll style intertwining that elucidates the language of images, and the imagery of language in a deceptively simple, minimally stylised depiction. Through the act of giving material substance and form to words, Ruscha has created a self-reflexive platform for semiotic analysis. If we heed the quasi-ontological approach of Hagberg, such a fusion of form and meaning may edge close to the elusive nature of referential representation: "Perhaps all cultural phenomena exhibit the characteristic of being non- dualistically and non-reductively affiliated with physical bodies or material entities. Thus works of art, as cultural phenomena and as analogues to the person- body connection and the sound-meaning connection, are similarly affiliated with physical objects." (163-164) Ruscha's treatment of his subject matter in Trademark seems to be breaking down the boundaries between perception and actuality, art and object - by merging and confusing different perceptual realms and delineations. On a semiotic level - the signs he uses are non-transparent and invested with a materiality that contributes to their meaning and impact. They are not just symbols or referential icons - they are aesthetically self-determinant. 5 A simple approach could view Ruscha’s 20th Century logo as a simple associative visual trigger for theoretical perceptions linked to ideas about consumerism, mass-production and the pervasiveness of advertising. But the way the artist approaches his visual signs diverts enough from conventions of simple representation to suggest something more. The very density and opacity found in Trademark is deliberate and definite – and in this we find a suggestion that the materiality of a sign may actually form a component of its meaning. Jonathan Harris writes that within the idea of an ‘image’ is a “powerful connotation of immateriality – and (it) is thought to be capable of being abstracted from its material vehicle.” (42). In Trademark, Ruscha has challenged these fundamental aesthetic theories by solidifying image, language and meaning into a singular self-referential artistic representation. Texts Cited Corner, Paul. ‘Julia Kristeva (1941-) Bulgarian-born French Theorist.’ Key Writers on Art: The Twentieth Century. Ed. Chris Murray. London: Routledge, 2003. 167- 172. Hagberg, G.L. Art as Language: Wittgenstein, Meaning, and Aesthetic Theory. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1995. Harris, Jonathan. The New Art History: A Critical Introduction. London: Routledge, 2001. Macey, David. ‘Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) Austrian Psychoanalyst.’ Key Writers on Art: The Twentieth Century. Ed. Chris Murray. London: Routledge, 2003. 118- 123. Mordden, Ethan. Medium Cool: The Movies of the 1960's. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1960. Oliver, Kelly. ‘Jacques Lacan (1901-81) French Psychoanalyst.’ Key Writers on Art: The Twentieth Century. Ed. Chris Murray. London: Routledge, 2003. 173-179. Bibliography Bowie, M. Lacan. London: Fontana, 1999. Carroll, Noel. Philosophy of Art: A Contemporary Introduction. London: Routledge, 1999. Chilvers, Ian. A Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Art. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. Danto, Arthur. ‘The Artworld.’ Journal of Philosophy 61, no. 19 (1964): 571-84. Gombrich, E. H. ‘Psychoanalysis and the History of Art’. Intern. Journal of Psycho- analysis 35 (1954): 1-11. Schapiro. M. Theory and Philosophy of Art: Style, Artist, and Society. New York: George Braziller, 1994. List of Illustrations Figure 1: Edward Ruscha Large Trademark with Eight Spotlights 1962 oil on canvas Whitney Museum of American Art Fig. 1 Read More