Film, Forestry, Frankenthaler, and Frank Lloyd Wright
Welcome to your August edition of Signified
Art is a great talking point. Why not start a conversation by forwarding this newsletter to someone you know who shares your love of art?
Remember the Boost! 🚀
Signifier’s consistent quality has been recognised and our editor, Remy Dean, was invited onto the Medium Boost Nomination Pilot team. Although Remy may nominate art, design, and media articles from across Medium, writers submitting to Signifier are more likely to attract his editorial attention. So, if you’re a writer with a story that would sit well in Signifier or a creative wishing to showcase your art in our : six : shot : gallery, you can find brief guidelines of how to do that at the bottom of this newsletter. ↓
Announcing the August exhibition at : six : shot : gallery
Emily Meilleur on ‘The Spaces Between’
As an ecologist and botanist I have been studying the natural world, its complexity, connectivity and beauty. I approach art as a way of seeing and understanding the world, through interaction with people, materials and the environment. It is a playful investigation in which observation, drawing and physical interaction are key elements...
Continue reading and see the art at : six : shot : gallery
Recently Published in Signifier:
Paul and Helen, Mountain and Sea
The Impressionist approach to landscape painting was shaped by several innovations, both technical and stylistic. Their focus on creating the impression of being in a particular place during a specific season, and even a specific time of day, was governed by a desire to capture the essence of the experience. They observed the effects of light and attempted to reproduce them using pigment. Which was quite a challenge…
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‘Daisugi’ — Japanese Art of Forestry
In the dense mountain forests surrounding the ancient city of Kyoto, Japan, rows of red Kitayama cedar trees tower silently over the sloping valleys and hillsides below. Their serene presence nods to the fast-fading practice of daisugi (台杉), a remarkable forestry tradition steeped in cultural history and unique to the region. Daisugi, which translates roughly to “platform cedar,” is a method that dates back to the Muromachi empire…
Michael Snow, a Different Wavelength
Experimental Film was an emergent genre through the 1950s and into the 1960s, long before Video Art became commonplace. Of course, it’s clear that the earliest works of cinema were also, by definition, experimental films exploring the potential and language of the moving image. So, what defines Experimental Film and differentiates it from other similar sub-genres such as avant-garde, non-narrative, Underground, Arthouse…
The ‘500 Frank Lloyd Wright Project’ with Andrew Pielage
“The start of the project was a complete surprise to me. That sounds funny to say now. I call the project the #500fllwproject in ode to Frank Lloyd Wright’s 532 designs. In 2011, before the project, I photographed my first Wright design. It was Taliesin West about 30-minutes from my house. Like most people, it only takes one visit to get you hooked on Wright. Soon I was taking photos of other Wright designs in my area…”
continue reading in SIGNIFIER 🚀
Popular Signifier (ICYMI)
Spotlight on one of our most popular or trending articles…
This Island, Earth
More than half a century ago, on 24 December 1968, the Apollo 8 mission’s CSM-103 spacecraft had orbited the Moon and its three astronauts — Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders — had become the first humans to travel beyond the Moon and witness an Earthrise… and, almost accidentally, William Anders had captured a world-changing photograph — the first photo-portrait of our world. The planet’s colours and clarity…
Before the Boost: from the archives of Signifier
In this regular feature of our Signified Newsletter, we select a few choice articles from our archives linked by a monthly theme. With the new Boost programme gaining momentum, we look back over the top three articles in Signifier according to their ‘reads’ and ‘fans’ rankings…
An Uneasy Beauty: Pre-Raphaelites and the Feminine Ideal
Ophelia, completed in 1852 by Sir John Everett Millais, is possibly the best known painting to be produced by the Pre-Rapahelite movement. It exemplifies their ongoing approach to represent nature as accurately as possible. They believed that artists who did not strive for realism in their representation of nature were disrespecting God’s creation. It also deals with typically Pre-Raphaelite subject matter, too: a story inspired by…
Frida’s ‘Viva la Vida’
Fresh watermelons immediately suggest life and abundance, celebrating the fertility of Frida Kahlo’s Mexican heritage. Her home, Casa du Azul was full of flora and fauna — she kept a garden, parrots, monkeys… all of which invited tropical lushness into her everyday life. Watermelons are significant in Mexican culture as they are often left as offerings to honour the spirits of ancestors during the Mexican Day of the Dead ceremony…
Piet Mondrian’s Tree Paintings
With his many studies of trees, Piet Mondrian demonstrated his process of distilling the essence of beauty from naturally harmonious forms. He was attracted to trees because of their complex and often chaotic structure. Yet, at the same time they are balanced compositions that also respond to, and reflect, their environment along with the action of time. In order to better understand the underlying forms, Mondrian, repeatedly painted…
Signifier can only go forward with your support
If you enjoy our thoughtful articles about art, design, and media, but haven’t subscribed yet, please consider doing so via this link — we receive a small referral fee and you get unlimited access to The Signifier publication and Six Shot gallery, plus all the quality writing across Medium. It’s a great deal! (And would also make a great gift for the art lovers in your life.)
This month sees the introduction of a new payment model at Medium and algorithms to reward and encourage writers of top-notch content. So, please, remember to tap the ‘clap’ button a few times for articles you enjoy. Commenting, highlighting, and following writers you enjoy also helps signal their value. This is a kindness that costs you nothing but can really brighten a writer’s day, how cool is that...
Whether you’re a Medium subscriber or not, you can also help spread the word by sharing the articles you enjoy on your social media. A little reader support goes a long way and doesn’t cost you a penny. Always appreciated.
Our Redbubble online store offers three collections of artistically taste-tested objet and there’s even a button badge of our distinctive Signifier/Signified dynamic diagram for all you media theorists and students of semiotics!
If you know anyone who enjoys reading “imaginative fiction at its best”, you can further support our editor and curator by recommending or purchasing their latest novels in the series, This, That, and The Other, written by Remy Dean with Zel Cariad and published by The Red Sparrow Press.
“Bursting at the seams with magic!”
“…will be enjoyed by fans of fantasy of all ages, particularly those who like classics, like the ‘Narnia’ saga.”
Attention, Boost-worthy Writers!
…propose an article for Signifier. The Signifier is a not too complicated, yet not too simplified, look at the evolution of art in short bites and bigger essays taking in art history, design icons, media theories, analysis of great works, think-pieces around art, the signifiers and the signified… from professional writers with art-related backgrounds.
We welcome proposals from Medium writers for suitable articles. Best way to get a feel for what is suitable is to read a range of our articles. The best way to make contact is to leave a comment on a recently published article written by our editor, Remy Dean. (A familiarity with the Signifier publication — demonstrated by following, claps, and comments — is advisable.)
Calling All Artists!
…submit your visual art to The Signifier : six : shot : gallery. Every month we showcase just six images by each artist, or creative entity. These six images are linked in some understandable way — perhaps from the same project, series, or dealing with related subjects. They may be linked by aesthetics, techniques, processes, philosophies, formal or conceptual elements. The six images are accompanied by an artist’s statement that does not necessarily explain the work but lends insight into meaning that informs deeper engagement.
You can read an overview of the gallery’s first two years here.
The art must be the sole creation of the artist, or creative entity, and intended to be viewed as a 2D image. No sculpture or 3D work will be considered at present. No NFTs. Acceptable media include, fine art, photography, drawing, painting, collage, prints, illustration, mixed media, digital, etc. The curator favours concept-driven work that is visually adventurous.
The Six Shot Gallery is hosted on the Medium platform, so the administration and maintenance costs are met by the reader and member contribution, not the exhibitors. Therefore, it will remain free to submit for the foreseeable future and no ‘virtual hanging fee’ is charged. Artists may include a single link to their personal website, agent, dealer or preferred sales site — we charge zero commission for this.
If accepted for exhibition, the six images should not appear elsewhere in the digital realm for the first month of their online exhibition. Exemptions to this rule include social media promoting the exhibition, artists’ personal websites, and any related press coverage. Apart from this agreement, Six Shot Gallery has no further control outside of the scheduled month of exhibition and copyright always remains with the author of the works. Layout and presentation is at the sole discretion of the curator.
The host and curator is Remy Dean and initial contact should be made by leaving a comment on the most recent exhibition showcase published in The Signifier : six : shot : gallery, or leave a private note on a recently published article written by our editor, Remy Dean. (A familiarity with the Signifier : six : shot : gallery — demonstrated by following, claps, and comments — is advisable.)
Please note that there is a maximum of 12 exhibition slots available per annum, so don’t be disappointed or discouraged should your work not be selected.
We look forward to receiving some exciting art from you!
There are example exhibitions to see here.
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