Breaking the chain of signifiers within a single artwork

 

Breaking the chain of signifiers, or "the cut," is a Lacanian psychoanalytic concept where the therapist interrupts the patient's continuous flow of speech to break their reliance on fixed, repetitive meanings. This symbolic act stops the "sliding" of meaning, exposing the structural lack within the patient and forcing a confrontation with desire and the Real.

 

This essay considers the value of the Lacanian concept in the production of an artwork. A passive synthesis can have the effect of locking us into a steady flow that carries an off the shelf flow of communication. The cut works as a jolt, a break in these flows. The very nature of what we may have called avant garde art in the 20th century considers this But of course the nature of the art gallery can fit neatly within the flow of expectation.

 

Contemporary galleries generally carry challenges and we accept of reject them into our spheres.This essay considers the disruption of the flow within a single artwork. Not as a surreal whole etc but as a disruptor - of course all things can become familiar and so consumed, coopted, capitalism etc etc etc