Pathways, Signs and Symbols - Essay Example

12 November Familiar Symbols in Art and Every Day Life Familiar symbols are a part of art and the play an important role in human life. Symbols convey idea, thoughts and message to the audience. Most of the symbolic art forms do not contain words and that is why in olden times this was the medium to communicate thoughts. This creativity was developed during a time when there was no verbal communication. The symbols that tell the tale of primitive times represent the culture, people and trend of the society. The symbols were all about colors, patterns and designs which represent certain aspects of life and convey meanings. The origin of symbols is still unknown but it is well connected with the tribes and small communities of the past. “Ndebele Tribe,” as they are mainly known for their decorative symbols, beadwork, crafts and paintings, that “hails from South Africa and is divided into four different groups of which two, Ndzunda and Manala live in Pretoria and Mpumalanga area of South Africa” (Lalioti 1) They are known for their colorful geometric symbols and designs and their distinctive use of colors and striking designs has made them popular around the world. The wall paintings by Ndebele portray “triangular and v-shaped designs” with distinct color (Lalioti 1). As the tribe started getting more exposure to urban style they started using synthetic paints and also including city scenes on their paintings. Ndebele symbols and art form do not contain any mystical content. Their women are very creative and use “their fingers to create” symbols and designs. The main occasion of painting and renewing their houses is on the “male initiation or wela” (Lalioti 3). The completion of paintings comes with family celebrations and get together. They intend to create these designs just to please the eyes. Their quality of artwork is exceptional as every design includes straight geometric designs. An interesting fact is that they paint all the designs with free hand without any rulers and the help of any shapes. Similarly, it is entirely the responsibility of women to make designs for walls. Their choice of colors and design patterns symbolizes their individuality and creativeness and makes them stand apart. Ndebele women paint both the interiors and exteriors of their houses. Most of the patterns they use are repeated but with variations in colors and designs. According to the reference most of the pictures have black outline and are done on white surface. Every section or pattern is filled with different colors before it gets repeated in the next design. Their connection to the urban society is evident in their paintings. The designs could be a little complicated for the first time viewers. But the understanding makes it clearer when one finds the geometric shapes. The contemporary artists of this tribe usually make use of a wide range of bright colors like yellow, red and green. They use natural colors and few earth colors but their connection with urban society helped them to use synthetic colors as well to create better effect. When discussing art and symbol, Giorgio de Chirico deserves special mention. Born in Greece, he is known for his classic and symbolic representation of art work. He is the pioneer of the “Metaphysical Movement” and was known for his strange style of paintings. He painted the cityscapes not with much movement but with a creepy atmosphere. The streets were often shown as eerie and haunted. Critics have mentioned his art work as dream writings. The themes of most of his paintings were focused on melancholia, done by depicting pictures of clocks. In his images he conveys feelings of power and freedom through trains, clocks, towers, arcades and shadows. The walls and towers of the paintings give a sense of power for the viewer. The most familiar thing in de Chirico’s painting was the “train” which is believed to have a link to his “childhood train set” and also reminiscent of his father was an engineer in the railways (Toohey 284). This symbol connects with de Chirico’s life in many ways thus symbolizing the “expectations, life, fulfillment and youth” (284). The clock is another popular motif used by him to represent time and is “linked with death” (284). Through his he uses different subjects for his paintings that are not purely symbols but signs. The monumental piazza in his painting, however, suggests timeliness and the imposing shadows show a motionless world. The empty interiors of buildings embody the sense of emptiness and loss. His most popular paintings are The Delights of the Poet, The Mystery and Melancholy of the Street, The Enigma of the Hour, The Melancholy of the Beautiful Day etc, to mention a few. The first one is a simple and powerful painting that does not contain any dramatic intonations. It gives the idea of time and evokes feelings of loss and melancholy and this surreal painter is popular for his desolate and dark paintings. He is also a writer and his Hebdomeros can be called something like a dream book which fades away immediately after reading. The book is exactly like his paintings which evokes a dream effect. The long sentences and the plentiful commas and semi- colons give a cinematic effect. The novel contains objects that seem to be more real and leave an effect on the reader. These works exemplify art and its deft use in conveying messages to the audience. Words which cannot be expressed can easily be conveyed through symbols. For artists, symbols are an important means for reflecting their idea and thoughts. Every symbol conveys a meaning and people from primitive days have used it in different ways. The symbol constitutes to the idea according to its appearance. Every symbol is believed to be sensuous and is distinguished with its expression and meaning. It always has some natural and conventional relation to it. For example lion is considered to be the symbol of strength, eternity and power. Most images and symbols are not so entertaining and neither do they please us at the very first glance, just that in order to understand those we must pass over the “sensuous form and penetrate deep to understand it’s more profound meaning” (Hegel 2013). In most of the artists production we find nothing serious in the image or symbol as it might just a “simple play of imagination” (Hegel 2013). Every symbol has certain meaning associated with it and it can be more than one meaning. With the development in our thought process the usage of symbol also grew better. These days the symbols have become an integral part of every field and to disassociate them is next to impossible. For example the musical notes represent rhythm…similarly toys represent and these are symbols. A person encounters a lot of symbols while travelling and I remember a few symbols and signs that caught my attention while coming from Hong Kong to Briton. These may not have a deeper meaning but to certain extent they convey messages about an aspect of the area. While in Hong Kong, a land of rich culture, I found symbols which were very conventional. They have strong symbols that represent their identity. I have visited Wetland Park in Hong Kong, which exhibits hundreds of specimens of butterflies from around the globe. This helped me to learn more about colors and gave me a deep insight into the nature and its symbols. Even while walking through the streets I found famous banners and logos that remind me of branded showrooms of Brighton. A logo with a hot pot gave me the hint that it is a restaurant. Color symbols, Chinese symbols and few nature symbols were quite interesting although it was indeed difficult to understand it at the very first glance. In each of our life it is important that we follow symbols, like the ones we find at traffic signals. During my journey I also found some popular symbols like symbols of love, good luck, Christmas and few religious symbols. It looks like an art but it reflects the identity of a particular society. We are so used too few art symbols that we understand what it intends to say like the sign of cross symbolize Christianity. Arts contain many forms of symbols which humans have been using since centuries. Most of the isolated tribes around the world are identified through their art forms and use of various symbols. Images and symbols are powerful which carry knowledge with it. As seen in the Ndebele Tribe of South Africa, people reflect their art through various design patterns they use for their houses. Each design or the layout is a certain kind of symbol and is so peculiar that makes them stand out from other society. Their culture is very unique and their complex use of symbols in their art tells about their history and their geometrical patterns are being used in architecture. Renowned architects from around the world admit that this community is a source of inspiration for most of their works. Ndebele women also engage in drawing geometrical designs and then paint them with striking colors and their art tells about their culture, the importance of symbols and effect of colors. The artistically skilled people and their traditional design convey the concept of modern society. With the very first look of their art work I found that they have a deep knowledge about various patterns and colors. It might look like a complicated design for the first time viewer but a careful look gives a deeper insight of their tradition. The samples offered me the understanding that Ndebele women draw the design in a very innovative way since all the designs have not followed a symmetrical pattern. Each design is highlighted by broad outline to provide a focal impact. They have inspired many authors to write about their art. One book that gives an elaborate description of this tribe is Ndebele: The Art of African Tribe by Margarate Courtney-Clark. It tells about the tribe culture, their beadwork and mural works on the walls. It also contains some stunning pictures of Ndebele tribe and how these women artists do the decorations with hands. The tribal women display their extraordinary geometric designs which represent the few scenes of urban culture. The book also mentions how the Ndebele tribes were secluded from South African government and had to take shelter in crowded areas of the city. This might be the reason why they started to add urban culture to their paintings and designs. There are pictures captured by Courtney Clarke where these tribal women are seen painting the exteriors in geometric patterns. Their tribal dress and ornaments are as colorful as their paintings. Every detail of this tribe is mentioned in such a way so the reader gets a clear idea of their skills. Most of their designs are so sharp as to reflect their strength and knowledge. Similarly, the symbols of Giorgio de Chirico are very appealing. Each of his paintings has thousand words to express. The clocks the building shadows, the twilight, etc looks gloomy but it symbolizes life, death, power and freedom. The archways in his paintings look so real but the environment looks completely empty. This indicates the idea of symbol for conveying certain emotions and thoughts. In his paintings he makes the subjects as symbol and signs. In the painting “The Delights of Poet” he paints a clock that tells the importance of time. “The directions of the shadows” tells (Toohey 283) the position of the sun. His paintings are expressive like mirror and it provides a vision. Enigma and melancholy were the essence of his paintings and also few of his works were symbol of mystery and love. There are mystic elements associated with symbols which leave a deep psychological impact. Like symbolism used in poetry touches our inner mind. Symbols like flower, rain, sun represents life and nature. We see these things every day and ignore it. Every single object in this world has a meaning to it. It is only the artist who uses these objects in their art for communicating certain emotions. Every skilled artist looks into objects with some meaning and through their art they bring forth a scene or an imagination. For those who believe in the idea of symbol must read “The Book of Symbols: Reflections on Archetypal Images.” It tells about 350 different symbols and how humans have used these as a metaphor to make some sense of living. “The book includes five sections – Creation and Cosmos, Plant World, Animal World, Human World and the Spirit World” (Kane 1). Further these sections are divided into sub-sections with emphasis on movement and expressions and human body. Besides, it also contains “Tools and other objects” and fundamentals of work and society. The sub section of the topics contains essays on symbols and other objects. The essays are very suggestive and gives a deeper knowledge about the understanding the meaning of symbol. The book is a good guide of symbols and is believed that it is being influence by Jung and the authors suggest that symbols touch our unconscious mind. The editor in chief Ami Ronnberg in the preface says that this book took nearly thirteen years to complete. Lot of research work has gone behind the concept of this book. There hundreds of images of art and symbol from around the world has been put together in a unique way to communicate the hidden meaning of symbolism. The 800 images in the book speak of diverse culture of the world. It speaks if life, dream and reality. The collections of essays are useful for those who intend to know more about the archetypal images and symbols. Reading this book will take you to a journey were you can get to know to see things in different ways. Each image is given with a commentary on its theme and culture. The cultural and human symbols give a sense of feeling about the complexity of human mind. It tells about the theme that is connected to different aspects of life. The book of symbols is a kind of encyclopedia that evokes imagination and teaches the audience about history. In some or the other way we are well connected to images, subjects and symbols. Not many of us realize the importance of symbols. To understand the importance of the signs and images it is important to get familiar with meaning or the symbolic significance of the images. As human beings we love signs and symbols and use it in our daily life. This helps in encouraging the communication in an effective manner. For example, to convey the feelings of concern we give greeting cards and it was considered to be the best medium to reach the human emotion until the technology paved the way of using online sites where one can use symbols like smiley to reach the heart. We often identify the originality of any subject by looking into its symbol or sign like branded stuffs. Compared to verbal communication, symbols are best medium and are easily understood by human mind. We often use visual medium in our letters and messages as it has the tendency to demonstrate the idea of communication and feeling. Coming to the point of using symbols in everyday life, it is a kind of communication tool for all the cultures. We understand the importance of symbols and signs when we communicate it to a small child and how easily he understands the message we want to convey. This shows that human minds respond to symbols and signs easily than verbal communication because they are something that we see and not something hear. We often see huge billboards with colorful signs and symbols which persuades our thoughts. It is easily to understand and is effective. Graphic designers take support of the symbols and signs and generate images that appeal to human eyes. Symbols and signs can be termed as a kind of visual communication which we encounter in day to day life in various ways. Artists and designers work with numerous tools of symbols and art to amuse people. In order to convey message to a particular audience artists and designers use their creativity through different style of symbols. Like the Ndebele who use patterns to designs their idea on wall, every artist try to invoke the mind of the audience by his skills. Use of symbol is a kind of art and use it in a best possible way is the skill of the artist. De Chirico in his painting used various objects which conveyed the feeling of sadness and loneliness. Symbols represent diversity in culture and every society in the world tells about their past through their symbols and are considered to be powerful because we humans does not have literal mind. The peculiar habit of our mind makes it easy to understand the effectiveness of the signs and symbols. Symbols are best medium to strengthen bond. Works Cited Lalioti, V Malan, A Pun, J Wind, J. Ndebele Painting in VR. University of Pretoria, Computer Science Department and GMD- IMK.VE Schloss Birlinghoven Web. 01 November 2013. Toohey, K. Giorgio de Chirico, Time, Odysseus, Melancholy, and Intestinal Disorder. 2002: Estate of Giorgio se Chirico/SIAE [Rome]/SODARC [Montreal]. Web. 01 November 2013. Kane, P. P. O. A review of The Book of Symbols: Reflections on Archetypal Images by the Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism (ARAS). 2013: The Compulsive Reader. Web. 01 November 2013. Read More