SCIENCE OF SIGNS AND SYMBOLS: MATERIAL MANIPULATION, MEANING-MAKING AND MEDIA ADVANCEMENT IN PAINTING

Abstract

Symbolism in visual arts is a stylistic thought pattern that communicates meaning using symbols, signs, allegory and metaphors. It is a potent and richly endowed platform where visual elements are used to give connotative depth to a work of art, to subtly convey messages or to communicate ideas. Most times, the more strange the imageries or materials contextualized as visual metaphors, the more interesting, deepening and captivating the work becomes. This explains the level of influence symbolic images can exert since they become far from ordinary especially when they already have attached strong meanings. From ages and locations, human civilizations have witnessed the presentation of messages in visual emblematic pictographs and ideographs. These are evidenced by the discovered cave arts which have pictures or symbols that have a semblance to what they represent. There are also local symbolic forms from diverse cultural locations which appear in intricate, linear, two-dimensional abstract, geometric shapes drawn from rich traditional life like uli, ona, nsibidi among others in the Nigerian cultural landscape. Similarly, the illusion of three-dimensionality on flat surfaces has been created using factory-based paints in liquid or paste states in realistic interpretations, all these are geared towards effective meaning-making and resultant communication. Today, with advancements in all facets of human endeavours, pictorial depiction still holds a very strategic position, especially as an artist’s platform for communication.