مجله رهپویه هنر
سال دوم شماره 3 (پیاپی 4، پاییز 1398)

The pictorial representation processes are of the most problematic, and at the same time, important issues that we face to in visual arts. Many thinkers have spoken about them and each of them has seen this issue from some point of view and presented some theories, and each of these theories has also set out some discourse and resulted in the other discourses that sometimes are very constitutional. Needless to say, such a breadth requires us to deal with the common ground of some numbers of the most fundamental of these insights. What is done in this essay is the consideration of some of the most important of these theories based upon the Charles Sanders Peirce’s semiotics, so as to find out whether we can find some common ground, while not so much limited, between these theories and whether we finally can identify some particular kind of audience. The result is that the theories under our discussion introduce some particular audience to us who is the reactive audience and can’t make any change in the picture before her. Then these theories, with all of the trivial and important differences they have, tell us about an audience’s subjective states who doesn’t want to roll up the sleeves and transform or transpose the representational relationships. She is the one who is accustomed to thinking and as though this thinking never is to be resulted in some physical action. The reactive audience who can’t or don’t want to change anything, in the eyes of each of these theories has a particular personality. In some of them, she is imaginative, and in some others is down-to-earth and rational someway. Some see her as somebody who is shifty and has an obscure mindset. We would set up a study based upon the Kith Kenney’s categorization concerning representation theories which itself is based upon the Peirce’s point of view about the signs, and we must say that the distal task is to lend weight to existence of some common ground between the sign-based theories. We would organize the theories which Kenney observes and add them some other perspectives, and in some cases go deep into the concepts and noise out some more details about them as much as possible so as to find out whether Kenny has overlooked some prospects -and that in our view is the case. We would make the case for some similarities between these theories and capture that our brother’s brain that seems to be intricate, is near enough simple really. The proximal task then is to focus upon the main mood of these theories which in turn speaks for the conceptions incepted and conceived through some normal person’s mind. Thus our discussion is mainly concerned with the notions regarding the indivisuals whose mental states are under our scrutiny. As you would see, each of these theories are fit into the Kenney’s categorization with an eye to the main elements of them in constitutive relation to the kinds of the sign, but these encapsualtions are not decisive anyway, and we point to this issue now and then somehow.

Foucault’s first major book , Madness and Civilization, is an examination of the evolving meaning of madness in European culture, law politics, philosophy and medicine from the middle ages to the end of the eighteenth century. It marks a turning point in Foucault’s thought away from phenomenology toward structuralism: though he uses the language of phenomenology to describe an evolving experience of the mad as “the other”, he attributes this evolution to the influence of specific powerful social structures.Foucault’s intellectual indebtedness to Nietzche is apparent in his writing, yet the precise nature, extent and nuances of that debt are seldom explored. Foucault himself seems sometimes to claim that his approach is essentially Nietzchean. It is well known that Nietzche plays a special role in Foucault’s thought, but instead of a lively scholarly interest in the relationship between the two philosophers, one has become accustomed to the somewhat mythical account that reading Nietzche, on a beach under the Italian sun in 1953, liberated Foucault from the influence of the three Hs _ Heggel, Hussrel and Heidegger that dominated French philosophy at the time. Following Nietzche, Michel Foucault, the French philosopher and litetetary critic , puts the foundations of western metaphysics under question and criticism. Accordingly, he endeavors to clarify the various forms of otherness through revelation and inversion of the definite criteria and principles in the structure of power.One of these forms of otherness is madness that, in Focault’s view, is manifested in the artworks of modern era. In Focault’s works, art is centered around three contents. The first one is that artworks can largely disclose the specific intellectual atmosphere of a historical period.Second, artworks can seriously question our mentality about characters. Third, the contents of style and artistic creativity can lead us to a new interpretation of human, who is the subject of experience.For over 350 years,art lovers have been fascinated by Las Meninas.This complex and controversial oil painting is an incredibly nuanced depiction of life in the court of King Philip.The title which translates to Ladies in Waiting, is a turning point in art history for the way in which Velazquez broke from the stiff formal portraits that typically defined royalty.  Perhaps one of the most important paintings in all western art history, this masterpiece continues to influence artists today. This essay tries to give an analysis of Diego Velazquez's masterpiece, Las, which is an evidence for Focault’s first notion. Then, an analysis of one of Rene Magritte’s surrealistic paintings is presented which expresses the specific spiritual ambiance of western culture in 20th century.The artistic madness in Foucault’s opinion and the relationship between art and Nietzche’s Dionysian matter is also clarified by presenting evidences from modern art and specially works of Francisco Goya. Finally, art is considered as a liberating factor from the dominating structures of power.

Due to the perception of Kant’s “critique of judgment”, Derrida examined “Parergon” conception in the shadow of the concept of framing. Kant draws the secure and non-penetration borders between inside and outside of artwork with Parergon’s sugges tion. Formalism or popular belief “Art for Art” is the result of transcendental reading and away from any conceptual - empirical s tain. Kant introduces aes thetic ideas without any benefit and interes t (quality’s moment), universal experience (quantity’s moment), with infinite forma finalis (relation’s moment) and consequently crucial (modality’s moment) in third judgment using four subsections. In the following, Kant mentions to parergon’s example in fourteenth part of the same book: Anything that is not depended on artwork in terms of intrinsic, it takes accounts as an attachment in terms of outside view; for ins tance painting frames or bodies clothing or jambs around luxurious buildings. With analysing this word, Derrida claims that it is impossible to separate parergon from ergon because the parergon lies on threshold s tatus that it isn’t whether inside or outside of artwork. Likewise, this means that it is actually inside and outside of artwork.Derrida analyses that Kant reject autonomy of his claim about artwork with applying His analytical method from the critique of pure reason to the s tudy of aes thetic judgment. That is, a rational (cognitive) framework is imposed on an irrational (sensory) s tructure. In Derrida’s view, the parargon designing and the separation of firm between the art and Nonart is watered by an epis temic that captures binary oppositions and can be traced in various forms from Plato and Aris totle to Husserl, Hegel and Heidegger. This paper consis ts of three general sections: The firs t part provides an overview of the basic concepts of Derrida’s ideas (metaphysics of presence, decons truction, differance, indeterminacy, and indecidability). The second part, while introducing Kant’s parergon, deals with Derrida’s reading of parergon and its various aspects. Part Three: In Derrida’s reading of Kant’s paradigm, the challenge inside and outside is explored in Iranian paintings. The fundamental ques tion of the paper is based on the same schema: Given the paradigmatic concept of Derrida, how can one analyse the inside and outside challenges in Iranian paintings? In this section, the indeterminacy and indecidability created by some elements in Iranian painting, such as the frame and the Passe-Partout, are examined through the interplay of the visual factors within each other and passing through the frame. Then the challenges inside and outside these works are analysed in the following areas: 1-Reflecting the spirit of time and the influence of theoretical-mys tical views on the formation of works. 2-The intimate connection of these works with literary texts. 3- The intertextual relation of the works with the earlier works and the influence on the later works. Using Qualitative methods and the use of library and online resources and with a decons truction approach, the paper addresses the mos t critical challenge posed by Kant’s paradigm, inside and outside in Iranian paintings. Such readings can serve as methodological guidance in a variety of visual fields.

Representation is a prominent theory about the essence of art. Archaic forms of this theory could be traced to Platonic texts concerning the relation of art to reality. It might seem that any work of art would inevitably be an imitation of nature. Despite its deficiency, this notion has gradually become the dominant approach to read art, nevertheless, by the invention of camera, the mechanical reproduction of reality was made possible in modern time and it challenged the old notion by transformation of representative essence of art. The direct effect of this crisis on painting, which had always been considered a representational art, was its emancipation from the confines of representing the material reality, since photography, thanks to its mechanical nature, offered such realis tic images of the material world that no painter could compete with. As a result, pictorial imitation declined in modernis t painting and exploring new ways of seeing the world and revealing the authentic truth became the main concern; something that lead modernis t painting to move further away from representing tangible reality. This incident resulted in modern painting’s refusal of representing the objective reality and, moreover, the emergence of new s tyles, which avoided any depiction or simulation of familiar objects. Also the emergence of new printing technologies like digital exacerbated the crisis of representation in the age of pos tmodernism and caused the appearance of challenging discourses like the idea of ending of representation sys tem by Baudrillard. However, in the very period where changing the representational nature of the arts and abolishing the representational tradition was under discussion, painting saw the formation of the pop art movement, and the elements of concrete reality returned to canvases through the works of such artis ts as Jasper Johns and Warhol, which seemingly sugges ted the return of painting to its representational tradition. Therefore, the ques tion then arises, Could the Pop art be the return of painting to its representative tradition? Hence, this research used written and electronic sources, analysis of qualitative data, and considered the Baudrillard’s thoughts on the ending of representation sys tem to demons trate how Pop art helped the subs titution of the logic of reproducing the reality for representing it. This research is premised on the idea that Pop art painting uses the logic of reproducing the symbol of reality foundation, and has no representative essence. Eventually, the article will firs t address the change in the nature of the arts in the modern era and then, by analyzing and describing the views of Baudrillard on the end of the representational tradition, explain how it was represented in pop art. Finally, The current research showed that while the movement chose concrete reality and familiar components of everyday social life as its subject matter, it did not aim by any means to reveal the true nature of things to us; it replaced, in perfect agreement with the theoretical discourse of the pos t-modern era, the representation of reality with the reproduction of the mark of its essence by recognizing the reproducible nature of the arts.

The art of modern sculpting in Iran has a close and inseparable relationship with the activities of Society for the Appreciation of National Cultural Works. This society, which was founded in 1925, has made significant efforts in supporting artis ts to design and fashion the sculptures of the dis tinguished cultural figures of Iran, domes tication of this modern art in Iran, and documentation of the visage of these figures. By designing sculptures of the cultural figures and erecting them in public squares, Society was of the firs t ins titutions that took sculptures to the city, put them on display, and made this art popular. This Society uses a variety of means to reach its goals in making symbols and propagation of sculpture making. By an approach based on national identity, the Society chose some perennial figures of the his tory and culture of Iran who have been favored by Iranians during different his torical periods. Although some literary and political figures chosen by Society, such as Ferdowsi, Ya’qub Layth Saffar, and Nader Shah, had some relations to the nationalis tic ideology of Pahlavi monarchy, these figures have also been favored by Iranians of different periods in time. The sculptures made under the sponsorship of the Society were symbols of the latent nationalism that is present in the modern thought. The display of these sculptures in public places resulted in the gradual erosion of the taboo of sculpting in the common culture that was the result of certain religious sensitivities. This part of the activities of the Society was aimed at both the masses and the elites. Society made some effective efforts for making symbols out of national, political, and scientific figures and tried for s tandardization of the their sculptures through creating regulations, defining special frameworks, domes tication of sculpturing, and building workshops of bronze sculpture-making in Iran. Some of these efforts were successful, but efforts in building workshops remained unsuccessful. Society was also monitoring other artis ts, organizations, and societies to make sure of their following s tandards of sculpturing, and believed erecting sculptures in public places mus t be under the supervision of Culture and Art Minis try. This article attempts to answer the main ques tion about the part played by Society in the popularization and spreading of the art of sculpting. Using descriptive and analytical methods and availing itself of documentary records, especially the documents of s tagnant archive of Society for the Appreciation of Cultural Works and Dignities, this article addresses this ques tion. Findings of this research show that, with targeted planning and the collaboration of able sculptors, Society was largely successful in this important task. Among the sculpture artis ts collaborating Society the role of Aboulhassan Sedighi with making twenty sculptures ordered by society, is outs tanding. He collaborated with Society and by drawing and painting of visages of the eminent figures had the greates t impact on documentation of these visages and popularization of this art. Today we know the visage of these figures through his drawings and sculptures. He also made efforts in making workshops for building bronze sculptures.

A tight link between photography, anthropology and modernity is undeniable. Fixed time and space photography allowed scientis ts to do something that was impossible before. The emergence of the camera and the need for anthropologis ts to have a more accurate record of society and its intended culture has made photography an integral part of anthropology from the outset. But one has to ask what it was in photography that connected him to the world of anthropology and why anthropologis ts should take advantage of this technology. The photography appeared in the nineteenth-century positivis t era, An era in which Anthropologis ts following the theory of evolution and the emergence of colonial powers for objective and realis tic recording of people of the Oriental communities, needed a proper ins trument and camera because of its realis tic and impartial nature has served in the hands of the colonial powers In their path to political hegemony. With the early introduction of photography in Ira, Antoin Sevruguin in Qajar era Looking at the popularity of European touris ts and satisfying the same desire that led to the formation of anthropological science, he portrayed various manifes tations of people’s lives. But over the years, with the change of government from Qajar to Pahlavi, during the second half of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Iran experienced a transition from traditional culture to modern culture and society. This implies a paradigm shift from tradition to modernity, both in its impact on anthropology and on image anthropology, which is directly related to science and has opened a new chapter in ethnographic photography in Iran. A season in which new ethnographic imagery was taken from a different angle from the pas t and based on completely different goals. In pos t Islamic revolution of Iran N. kasraeian have been documented the Iranian people. By comparative s tudying of anthropological photographs of these two photographers with anthropological approach and with two different perspectives, orientalis t and indigenous, both of which are related to pos t-colonial s tudies, this ques tion is raised that how Orientalis t and Indigenous discourses have been represented in the Works of these photographers.We used descriptive and comparative analysis to answer this ques tion. The choice of comparative analysis method in this s tudy is due to overlapping contents with literature review of this research: “the issue of culture”. In this regard we have analyzed the works of the photographers in three categories of subjects: women, ritual and work. We have realized that there are some differences and similarities between the works of the photographers and their works are in contras t to the European view toward orient, European outer look at phenomena. We know this outer look as exotism. Adding “ism” to the end of the word Separates it from ordinary everyday speech and transfer it to the realm of discourse. The research asserts that exotism is not jus t a concept but a cultural flow, a kind of looking and special process that brings special discourses with itself too.

Legends, anecdotes and tales are a reflection of people’s life which in turn represents their experiences. Behaviors, rituals, traditions and cus toms together with types of thinking s tyles, mores associated with kindred and kinship and many other deeds, both written and verbal, passed down from generation to generation cons titute the cultural possessions of a nation. As two themes, talisman and magic which are found in anecdotes and tales with their central motif based on a magical thinking have their roots in traditions. S till these themes are clearly evident in modern society and leave a noticeable impact on the folk cus toms of urban and rural communities. Magical thinking has been a permanent fixture of human life, from unknowing early humans who learned through experience to modern humans who receive scientific teachings and live in an environment affected by thinking, wisdom and technology. For millennia, humans have believed that everything in the world around them is alive and, above all, aware of what’s going on. To them, talisman and magic manifes t themselves in certain objects, forms, sounds, terms, movements, beverages, edibles and inhalants which are effectively used to transfer, change or take control of natural forces and matters. Based on their cus toms, traditions and thinking, countries in four corners of the world have maintained a type of magical behaviors and passed them down to following generation. In our dreams, imaginations, films and books, we animate living creatures and even objects in a bid to nurture a magical belief, something which has left its footprint on our real life as well. Myths and tales on elves which have been created based on these [magical] beliefs, rites and rituals are s till lis ten-worthy and believable although they are old and impalpable. As an art-indus try, animation with its salient features such as daydreaming, enchantment, and animation of lifeless objects has successfully drawn ideas from these anecdotes and created multiple products which are themed after talisman and magic. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, an American animated musical fantasy film directed by David Hand, and Spirited Away, a Japanese animation directed by Hayao Miyazaki, are two remarkable fantasy films which have chosen talisman and magic as their themes based on discrete cultural signs and indexes. According to semioticians, signs which are created in the form of words, images, sounds and objects affect the text and lend meaning to it. Through semiotics, the secrets and talisman of language and texts can be unraveled and concepts can be thoroughly fathomed out. The s tudy of signs along with identification and analysis of man’s cultural works helps raise human perception and awareness when it comes to various sciences such as anthropology, philosophy, sociology and art, in particular.Thus, the researcher has chosen Spirited Away and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in pursuit of a practical goal. The researcher has tapped a qualitative method for this s tudy with an approach toward sign-semantics and has s tudied different resources including written archives, libraries as well as audiovisual materials and s tills.