Two works 'OPEC+' and 'Unaphtia' form a diptych that
culminated my many years project ‘Semiosis of Meta-Abstract Symbols /
Phenomenology of Freedom’ which lasted 16 years - from 2007 to 2023 - www.niyazmamedov.com/category/underground/page/3/ .
Although this is a compositionally complete work, I consider
it as a prelude to ‘Unaphtia’. Both of them form a single idea of a world
doomed to rethinking.
‘Plus’, the content of which contains the text of the
Apocalypse of John the Evangelist, takes the form of a ‘cross’, which is
carried by cul-de-sac modern civilization, the main driver of which is an
economy based on hydrocarbons as the dominant factor in the power of countries,
as well as the shaping the agenda of world politics, endlessly generating wars
and devastations to this day.
The four seals - the four horsemen of the Apocalypse - are
conditionally associated here with the letters of the OPEC abbreviation, while
visually coinciding with the capes - the unique corners of the earth depicted
in the second work of the diptych, thereby gaining in it a chance for the
transformation and rebirth of the world in a different, completely new
capacity, the opportunity for which gives the earth itself, if to rethink the
attitude towards it, and above all - attitude of humanity towards itself.
***
This diptych is part of my
many years project ‘Semiosis of Meta-Abstract Symbols / Phenomenology of
Freedom’ that ended in 2023 - https://niyazmamedov.com/category/underground/page/3/. 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.
