Exploding Tongues: Language, Art, and the Russian Avant-garde

Orientation (Proper)

What do you see, but why?
When looking at a painting, the viewer sees something. Perhaps it is something they can clearly point out, or it may be more difficult for them to articulate, but they at the very least garner some kind of interpretation when presented with a work of art. However, this interpretation is subject to differentiation based upon the orientation of the piece. What is considered to be proper is only one iteration of many that may develop when the orientation is manipulated. This is especially true in Kazimir Malevich's Suprematist works of the mid 1910s. Upon first glance, the majority of Malevich's Suprematist paintings appear to be an incoherent jumble of shapes and colors, but regardless, a viewer would still be able to look at a piece such as Suprematism and come to some kind of conclusion. This conclusion is not complete, however, because the viewer was looking at the painting not the right side up. In fact, it is impossible to do so because there is no single correct orientation. Each turn of the piece changes it and together, these different interpretations paint a complete story, a visual poem. This rotation and a focus on looking past a single orientation, but seeing the painting as a active story that gives a piece of the plot with each vital rotation. After completely exploring these differing orientations, a story comes into focus. This is the only way any of Malevich's pieces such as his self-portrait can be fully enjoyed. Malevich's experimentation with visual poems in the form of paintings can be traced back to the early Russian Futurist poets and their experiments textually altering and manipulating their poems so that they are read differently. Malevich employs similar methods, but he focuses on a completely visual translation without any basis in sounds or text. 

Orientation (Which one)?
Observing a painting is a fairly simple process in that the steps are to see it and then to observe it, in that order. However, Malevich's Suprematist works redefined the process and lengthened it. Now, it is see it, observe it, turn it, see it, observe it, repeat x2, and then observe the entire thing with a more complete knowledge of the painting. For some paintings, this may seem not necessary and indeed, it isn't most of the time. For instance, look at Suprematist Painting. Rectangle and Circle. It is a fairly obvious work in that the majority of its viewers will immediately recognize the appearance of a person, no manipulation of the artwork necessary. The circle represents the head, the rectangle represents the torso, and together one could draw a reasonable conclusion that this is a purposefully simplistic representation of a person with the intention to highlight how simple people are when stripped of all else but their shape. However, now look at the same painting, but tilted to the right 90 degrees. Now, look at it when it is tilted to the left 90 degrees. These orientations of the same painting present a completely different image that directly affects the portrayal of the original, upright orientation. Looking at these two examples, interpretations will not be as easy or intuitive to find as the human figure. However, looking at the painting tilted to the right, a knife can be seen with a large rectangular blade and a connected hand with an off canvass arm. Furthermore, the painting tilted to the left can appear to be a gun. Both of these interpretations are not necessarily the right ones and most definitely not the only ones, but their violent nature completely change the originally proposed meaning of the first orientation. Now, instead of being a painting about the simplicity of the human form and how we are all a torso and a head, it instead preaches a story of how easily humanity can tilt off balance and turn to violence against each other.

Turn-Per-View
Suprematist Painting. Rectangle and Circle is a good example of how adjusting the orientation gives more pieces of what first appears to be a simplistic story or available interpretation. The story of this painting is enhanced and revealed as originally incomplete. However, with some paintings, such as Suprematist Composition: Airplane Flying, any interpretation requires much more work as there is ostensibly no figure, or any shape at all. The title suggests that there should be a Sudden Airplane, but upon looking at the piece after flipping it 180 degrees or "upside down", suddenly there is an image of a person that can be seen carrying a stack of boxes. The figure is more abstract in that it is not the shape of a complete person, but only the top half. However, it is more complete than anything that may have been gleaned from the initial orientation offered of the painting. 

Another, and perhaps an even more abstract example, is Malevich's painting Suprematist Painting. Eight Red Rectangles. Looking at this painting, there are many, many possible interpretations and generally everyone will see something unique in their observation. If the two long red rectangles on the left side are seen as lips, the smaller rectangles could possibly be interpreted as words escaping from the lips.. or perhaps blood red bullets and the long skinny rectangles are the barrel of a gun. The point is, there is not a single correct viewing of this painting and the infinite number of ways to view it are doubled when the painting is looked at upside down. Now looking at this orientation of the painting, there are even more possible interpretations that can be taken from the arrangement of these rectangles. Perhaps it is a cruise ship, perhaps it is a cocked gun, or it could possibly even be seen as a hand performing a rude gesture. Regardless of what one sees, if they were presented with the second orientation and told it was the "correct" one, they would not question it because it is, in the end, just as alien of a painting in that orientation as it is in the first one. In fact, in order to prove my point, I introduced the two orientations in the wrong order. The second one is actually the orientation the painting is normally presented in while the first one is the "upside down" view. The ambiguity of this painting and these two orientations highlights how neither one is necessarily "better" or more correct of a way to view the painting than the other. 

Elaborate
Kazimir Malevich's Suprematist paintings are, if nothing else, a medium for storytelling. This is why any concerns of the necessity of a proper orientation must be disregarded when examining a Suprematist painting. Each of these stories employs a different panel of the story depending on how the painting is being viewed. The combination of these four representations into a single, holistic interpretation allows a greater understanding of the work as opposed to the more narrow interpretations that are possible from a viewing limited to a single orientation that is assumed correct.

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