#Visual art – KrabbelKrappies Blog

We all know the saying that “a picture says a thousand words” but what does it really mean?

Well nonverbal communication makes up more than 70% of our communication spectrum, leaving only a small part to verbal communication. Nonverbal communication in other words is all forms of communication without sound, including body language, text messages and pictures. When speaking to somebody it is the nonverbal signals that ensure that the message is correctly interpreted by giving the receiver of the message context and emphasis through movement of the hands for example that points to where the communicator wants to go.

Nonverbal communication is a language just as must as the spoken language, although it seems to be more universal it is still cultural specific in certain situations. For example, when you ask directions to a place hand signals pointing in the correct direction can transcend spoken language barriers but a symbol of a specific animal might have very different meanings in different context and cultures – a bull in South Africa can symbolize the rugby team but elsewhere be a religious icon.

It becomes even more complicated when one starts to put symbols together to form a message since the meaning of a single symbol may change when in juxtaposition with another symbol. To ensure that the message is clear nonverbal communicators must be very certain of the symbols meaning before using it in an advertisement or painting. Since the Middle Ages the use of pattern books gave strict rules and defined meanings to symbols that may be used in religious paintings, for example a white lily signified purity.

Working Title/Artist: Birth of Virgin Leaf
Department: Medieval Art
Culture/Period/Location:
HB/TOA Date Code:
Working Date: c. 1375
photographed by mma 1993, transperency #1A
scanned by film and media 8-20-01 (jn)

Example 1. Manuscript Illumination with the Birth of the Virgin, Don Silvestro de’ Gherarducci, Florence, ca. 1375 (Tempera, ink, and gold on parchment).

In this example the message of the picture is clearly the purity of the Virgin since her birth – being untouched by sin.

Next time…a deconstruction of a painting in order to examine the nonverbal codes that gives meaning to the message.

Headlines in the news today read “whites had no claim to land in South Africa” – statements like these take away one group of the rainbow nations rights to belong to South Africa. Is it any wonder then that the artist, which is to represent SA at the 57th Venice Biennale, Candice Breitz, chooses to live and work abroad?

“Becoming series”, Candice Breitz, 2003.

Candice Breitz, born 1972 in Johannesburg, studied Fine Arts at the University of the Witwatersrand (Johannesburg). After graduating, in 1993, she moved to America – where she continued her studies, receiving her Master’s degree in Art History at the University of Chicago and her doctoral at Columbia University (New York).
Currently she is a Professor of Fine Art at the Braunschweig University of Art (Berlin).

Although she has an impressive repertoire of exhibitions and publications one have to wonder if she is indeed the best candidate to represent South Africa today? She has lived longer abroad than in South Africa. Could they not find ANY suitable candidate that lives and works in South Africa to represent our art at the Biennale?

During 1994-8, her work focused on questions about gender and identity in South Africa. Examples of her early work includes “The Ghost series” (1994-6) and “Rainbow series” in which she questions commodity and gender.

"Ghost series", Candice Breitz, 1994-6. — “Ghost series”, Candice Breitz, 1994-6.

She also created series in which she question commodities, trademarks and the art market (art as commodity), e.g. “My Twin” and “Painting by Numbers”. (1997).

In works that are more recent her art consist of video art. In “Working class hero” (2006) she explores modern peoples disillusion with believe systems and societies values as accepted status quo that needs to be re-evaluated.

"Working class hero (A portrait of John Lennon), Candice Breitz, 2006. — “Working class hero (A portrait of John Lennon), Candice Breitz, 2006.

Her art is most definitely Conceptual Artworks but very little of her South African identity can still be found in her thinking and creative process. In the current climate where many South African’s find themselves living abroad – perhaps she is the best choice, after all, to represent all those displaced South Africans since they can better relate with her way of thinking!

I, for one, am looking forward to seeing the artworks created for the Biennale! Make us proud!

Tag: #Visual art

A picture says a thousand words – An Introduction to Visual Communication

A Question of Identity, Ownership and Patriotism