René Magritte’s Treachery of Images (the one with the pipe that’s not a pipe), makes a statement about representation. Representation is what we do to represent something. A drawing of a cat represents a cat by mimicking visual cues so as to call to the mind’s eye, a cat. Representation and how it works is often understood intuitively, we don’t tend to think about it as we’re exposed to advertisements, numbers, words, and all sorts of communications. How representation works is a tricky concept when put under some more scrutiny. Magritte’s piece contributes the idea that a represented object is not the object itself, although it calls to mind said object. Representation is one of many ideas I dissect using my art as a laboratory.
Take this piece, the title is above the next block of text.
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Look at the title, can you read it? Look at the piece. What image do you call to mind?
What a treasure chest of thought! How is it that a representation of an object, in the space identifying the subject (the title), communicates less information than an arbitrary array of shapes and colors (the piece)??? This piece suggests that language, and the meaning it supposedly embodies, is an arbitrary smattering of sound. Our communication is only possible because of centuries of history and habit that associate lines in the sand with certain pleasures or pains. I venture to say that not only is representation (words, numbers, & images) an exclusively culturally-defined communication method, but the very thoughts we have (and our feelings about them) are similarly entirely culturally defined. Simultaneously undermining representation & thought.