Signs and Signifiers

Signs and Signifiers

McGrath Gallery at Bellarmine University

October 6-November 7

Signs and Signifiers is an examination of the sign and its signifiers. This sounds like a cheeky, over-simplified assessment of the exhibition happening now at Bellarmine University. However, it’s the closest thing to an uncomplicated explanation a viewer can get before plunging headlong into an abyss of “shared noticing,” Saussure and his three word vocabulary: sign, signifier, signified, and lightless artist statements that include such phrases as “undergirds,” “narrative construction devices,” and “white-male heteronormative ascendency as an ontological norm.“ So, Signs and Signifiers is an examination of the sign and its signifiers. Let me explain.

Curator Nicholas Ruth calls Signs and Signifiers a “show about noticing,” which ultimately evolves into a “shared noticing.” It’s about noticing those things we take for granted, namely, signage. Though signs are literally meant to be noticed on a shared level, the pieces in the show examine the secondary meaning of signs, like political implications, racial bias, and hidden aesthetics. The end goal, for Ruth, is to illustrate that print itself still matters, and that we should always be thinking critically about the print we do see. The abundance of print in this show, from the pamphlet, to the wall texts (which were full artist’s statements), to the introductory statement at the front of the gallery, obfuscate the critical eye. It’s difficult to think critically about a piece when you’re being told exactly what it means. Unlike signage, which is ideally quick to read and clear in meaning, the art drowns in its supporting text, and the overwhelming amount of message becomes noise.

A bright spot of the show, however, is how Ruth cleverly juxtaposes “signs” as a linguistic concept with “signifiers” as a visual concept. Saussure defines a sign (for instance, a horse) as a combination of the signifier (the sound image or printed word “horse”) and the signified (the idea of the horse). Essentially, a word is made up of its physical form and its meaning. In Signs and Signifiers, some pieces are about Saussurian signs, and challenge both the signifier and the signified. Conversely, some pieces are about the signifiers of signage, the purely aesthetic and visual portions of signs, devoid of meaning.

One piece that scrambles the two-part concept of “signs” is R.L. Tillman’s piece Blotto (2015). A largescale work consisting of twelve inkjet and screen prints, Tillman’s piece is a grid of specimen-like used metal bottle caps on a white background. Inside the bottle caps, which are distorted from use, are little rebuses, or visual puzzles. At first the viewer unconsciously tries to figure out the puzzles, but then realizes they’re all completely nonsensical.  None of them make any sense whatsoever. Some of the puzzles are too blurry to read, which Tillman states was their intention. So not only does the artist distort the signifier through visual muddling, but they also upend the signified. These puzzles have no meaning at all, and the meaning in the visual elements of the puzzle are made illogical. The nature of the sign is subsequently questioned, as is the arbitrariness of our own language.

Detail of Blotto, R.L. Tillman (2015)

Opposite of Tillman’s piece are two prints from artist Jenny Robinson. Off Ramp Billboard #1 and Above L.A., both dateless, are monoprint and drypoint images of the backs of billboards. These mostly monochromatic prints illustrate the elaborate structures that support billboards, and, according to Robinson, solely exist to highlight the aesthetics of signage. In this way, this piece becomes a signifier. It is bereft of all meaning, and only the physical indicator is left. One red strip around the border of one of the billboards hints at meaning, but without the structure, the front-facing side of the billboard doesn’t exist. 

Off Ramp Billboard #1, Jenny Robinson

Above L.A., Jenny Robinson

Nicholas Ruth curated a show in which he combined two heady concepts to further our understanding of signage. While the effect of linguistic versus visual was curious and thought provoking, it didn’t do much to further Ruth’s hope of illustrating the importance of print. Additionally, much of the message of the show was lost in the puzzling wall texts and other accompanying literature. Ruth might have taken a hint from his own concept, and “noticed” a stop sign.