Thursday Post 9/11/08

Topic word: Symbol

Quote:
The whole visible universe is but a storehouse of images and signs to which the imagination will give a relative place and value; it is a sort of pasture which the imagination must digest and transform.
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Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) French poet.
http://en.proverbia.net/citastema.asp?tematica=1186

Reading material:
Ayer, L. K.; Bolton, Gambier Govenar, Alan; Gupte, B. A.; Joshi, O. P. Anthropology of
Symbols. RBSA Publishers: Jaipur, 1992.

O. P. Joshi, who is the editor of this book and wrote the first chapter, “Tattooing and Tattoers A Socio-cultural Analysis”, which is the chapter that deals the most with symbolism, is a social Anthropologist who specializes in the Sociology of Art. He has also written Art and Aesthetics in Tribes of Gujarat. The purpose of this book was to organize twelve papers that were written for a symposium on “Human Body Decoration”. The scholars who participated inspired O. P. Joshi to organize their works into a book, and they all came to the conclusion that symbolism was a significant factor in body decoration and alteration.


Relation to my work:
In modern times there are a plethora of reasons people get tattoos, but almost anyone with a tattoo can tell you some sort of meaning behind the image or words. Sometimes this meaning is post-rationalized, but it has meaning none-the-less. I plan to use the tattoos of others’ as symbols to create metaphors, statements, and/or stories with my work by juxtaposing them with specific backgrounds. Whether it is based on the meaning created by the wearer of the tattoo, or meaning perceived by me, they’re symbolism will be emphasized.




Third Eye tattoo which is a symbol for seeing beyond reality or enlightenment