Ruscha Formalist analysis - Essay Example

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