SCHEMATIZING (35)
By:
May 20, 2024
One in a series of posts via which HILOBROW’S Josh Glenn will attempt to depict the intellectual and emotional highs and lows of developing a semiotic schema.
Sinjerli Variation IV, from the Sinjerli Variations Series, 1977
Stella’s Sinjerli Variation series includes six lithographs comprised of interlaced variations of Sinjerli I, a painting from his Protractor Series (1967- 1971). A 1963 trip to Iran left him fascinated by the rounded, brightly colored patterns of Islamic art; he’d title each of the Protractor paintings — which indeed look like interleaved protractors, of various sizes, coexisting on a depthless plane) after an ancient city in Asia Minor. PS: Zincirli (pronounced Sinjerli) was a city of the Anatolian people of the Hittite Empire.
A semiosphere schematizer struggles with the question: How complex can the schema become before it turns chaotic? The Sinjerli Variation lithographs are right on the border of chaotic.
PS: Is that a Sinjerli variation in the background of the ’80s sitcom Perfect Strangers?
MORE FURSHLUGGINER THEORIES BY JOSH GLENN: SCHEMATIZING | IN CAHOOTS | JOSH’S MIDJOURNEY | POPSZTÁR SAMIZDAT | VIRUS VIGILANTE | TAKING THE MICKEY | WE ARE IRON MAN | AND WE LIVED BENEATH THE WAVES | IS IT A CHAMBER POT? | I’D LIKE TO FORCE THE WORLD TO SING | THE ARGONAUT FOLLY | THE PERFECT FLANEUR | THE TWENTIETH DAY OF JANUARY | THE REAL THING | THE YHWH VIRUS | THE SWEETEST HANGOVER | THE ORIGINAL STOOGE | BACK TO UTOPIA | FAKE AUTHENTICITY | CAMP, KITSCH & CHEESE | THE UNCLE HYPOTHESIS | MEET THE SEMIONAUTS | THE ABDUCTIVE METHOD | ORIGIN OF THE POGO | THE BLACK IRON PRISON | BLUE KRISHMA | BIG MAL LIVES | SCHMOOZITSU | YOU DOWN WITH VCP? | CALVIN PEEING MEME | DANIEL CLOWES: AGAINST GROOVY | DEBATING IN A VACUUM | PLUPERFECT PDA | SHOCKING BLOCKING.