What are we taking back
from looking at the ‘artwork’, what is the artist trying to convey? Art is
meant to cause a lot of questions because it is so fluid and undefinable– so
its never something we can get a direct answer from. There is a huge line between
an artwork that’s created as a signage that we see around as rules or safety
measures in our everyday surroundings and artwork as an expression. A lot of people
make decisions or think of things based on what they like to see, when they
interact with artwork– things that are aesthetically pleasing to them.

Representation is integral
to culture, a culture is constructed by a network of shared memory because the
meaning is shared, this means that everyone can interpret the world more or
less the same way. The difference between the interpretation can be difficult
to portray for artists sometimes when they need to express something so
accurately that it is understood the same by everyone. Where as sometimes they
also have freedom to play on this differences.

Example:  When
the artist has to illustrate something that is understood and holds the same
meaning to each viewer, for an instance a front door then- he/she thinks of a
house with a front door – and questions what color is the door, what is it made
of, how big is it, does it have a handle or a doorbell etc. The artist in this
case will have to go through all these subjects in order to make sure that the
audience understands what he/she are representing as the front door. Else, an artist
can test the limits of what it means to be a front door and can push the limits
of a front door until it looses its meaning and could be broken down to his/her
personal way of expressing in their own language making it open for the viewer
to respond to it individually.

Different opinions have
lead to different cultures resulting in making of languages. Here semiotics
plays a vital role, the language is in turn built up of symbols and signs like
letters and numbers. Semiotics here is a good gateway to use to understand. Example: when we think think of a word for
instance -classroom we understand what classroom is, we start imagining a
board, tables, chairs, books, students etc. The word itself doesn’t tell us
what it is but can suggest the same imagery to us all because of the letters in
a particular order that we relate a shared meaning. If we switch around the
letters we can get loads of other words which can mean something completely
different; so therefore order becomes really important which can be applied to
looking at artwork as well. Understanding art is like translating it and
relating it to things that we comprehend like love or grief or simple aesthetic
values or the use of color and its always understood vastly differently from
person to person. Its all about communicating the signifying signs and symbols
that the artwork is trying to show us.