Reconstructing the Visual Communication Semiotic System of Ceramic Sculptures

Abstract

This paper is committed to constructing a systematic analytical framework, aiming to conduct an in-depth exploration of the semiotic resources employed by the creators of New China’s ceramic sculpture artworks from the 1950s to the 1970s. In the field of semiotic research on ceramic sculpture art, the academic community presents a dual-core research orientation: on the one hand, it focuses on “extra-textual” factors, emphasizing the investigation of contextualized social and historical elements that directly influence creative design decisions; on the other hand, it places “intra-textual” factors in a core research position. This orientation draws on the analytical logic of linguistic signs and defines ceramic sculpture, as a form of visual communication, as a semiotic system with systematicity and codability. This paper selects O’Toole’s (1994) Functional Analysis of Sculpture, a typical theoretical paradigm of the “intra-textual” research orientation, and conducts a critical evaluation of it by integrating multi-disciplinary visual theories, so as to systematically reveal the limitations of this analytical method when interpreting the semiotic resources of ceramic sculptures in a specific historical period. On this basis, the paper further points out that to achieve an effective analysis of the semiotic resources of ceramic sculptures, it is essential to fully incorporate the inherent pluralistic and essential characteristics of visual communication.