This is the work in
which the Theory of Peripheral Meanings-Controlling Signs found its absolute
embodiment. “… In the shades of gray color of peripheral meanings-controlling
signs, the dynamics of the development of meaning is revealed, although formally
residing in the static nature of what is depicted, but containing the infinity
of what is possible in the research of the hidden.” - https://niyazmamedov.com/art-signs#17-02-2016 .
The central element of
the composition symbolizes oil rig that still feeds (and likely to be within
next decade) the energy of the world. The artwork reveals the reality of the
state of transition from hydrocarbon energy to green one, in which despite the
talks about the need to save the planet, global players are in no hurry to
implement the environmental agenda by transition from combustion of fossil
fuels to clean energy. The reason is banal - high profit of the oil business in
comparison with green energy. It was this message that was expressed in the
work by means of the above-mentioned peripheral meanings-controlling signs.
Located in four corners
of pro-semantic zone of gray color, the signs symbolize here the superiority of
business interests over the environmental expectations. The depicted (and
shaded by ‘trees’) rhombus (the meta-abstract symbol of the area where market
value forms - the shape that was derived in one of my previous works,
tetraptych, www.niyazmamedov.com/color-equivalent/ ),
symbolizes unwillingness to abandon the oil business by “energy companies” in
favor of green energy that is not enough competitive compared to hydrocarbons.
The symbols that I use
in my work are rather semiotic codes, a kind of key woven into the semantic
fabric of the work to reveal hidden contradictions or ontological secrets of
modernity.
For
more detailed information about the work please follow the link - www.niyazmamedov.com/the-underground/#12-02-2020
- where the events were described by me ‘in hot pursuit’.
This work is part
of my many years project ‘Semiosis of Meta-Abstract Symbols / Phenomenology of
Freedom’ - https://niyazmamedov.com/category/underground/page/2/ - that
ended in 2023. It has been carried out at the intersection
of art and semiotics research, which resulted in a dozens of artworks and a
number of innovations related both to the formal aspects of art / theory of art
and semiotics - Post-Simulacrum, Signometaphors, Peripheral
Meanings-Controlling Signs, Dynamics of the Development of Meaning, Post-Brand
Existence of Signs, Theory of Reverse Influence of the Sign, etc. - the
theories that make it possible to visualize answers to questions arising from
complex modernity.
Much of this research was
carried out in conditions of complete art underground inside the transnational
oil corporation bp where I’d made ‘deep dive’ for the unbiased and unrestricted
studying political/social/environmental aspects of its activity that were the
subject of my interests at intersection of art & semiotics. It was an
unprecedented experience of penetrating the holy of holies of what should be
explored, and when the research was completed, I left the dystopia having sent
preliminarily a letter to bp CEO, substantiating in detail my proposal to
liquidate the oil corporation as axiologically unjustified.
All my observations and
conclusions were described in the theoretical work ‘The Script’ divided in two
parts: 'The Underground' (related to the closed community of the transnational
oil corporation - https://niyazmamedov.com/the-underground/ )
and ‘Art & Signs’ (related to reflections regarding art and semiotics - https://niyazmamedov.com/art-signs/ ).
One of the most significant
achievements (or discoveries) during the project was the Theory of Peripheral
Meanings-Controlling Signs, in which an attempt was made to give the dynamics
of the development of meaning to the static images. The understanding of this
necessity comes from the fact that any image in the picture, being static, is a
priori false in relation to the depicted, since the sign (which is any display
of an object or state), which replaces the referent, always lags in the process
of reflecting the real state of things, and the referent always running away
from us. Any semiotic sign that translates meaning is not a "what",
but a process - the process of conveying meaning - a state that is absolutely
unthinkable in the category of static. Paradoxically, within the framework of
visual art, it is possible to create a conditional effect of the dynamism of
the objects and states under study, revealing in their visuality the process of
developing meaning, which, as it were, has not yet been completed, but brings
us closer to understanding the essence of things, and perhaps still continues.
This is a very visual story.
According to this
theory, such dynamism can be achieved by placing the peripheral
meanings-controlling signs in a pro-semantic zone of gray color, where gray
gradations give rise to a visually perceptible dynamics of the development of
meaning - both the referent of the meanings-controlling signs themselves and
the central object depicted in chromatic colors (placed in the pre-conceptual
dynamism of the background gray zone), supplemented and reinforced by
meaningful signs. “In the shades of gray color of peripheral
meanings-controlling signs, the dynamics of the development of meaning is
revealed, although formally residing in the static nature of what is depicted”
- www.niyazmamedov.com/art-signs#17-02-2016.
