Conceptual Art: Transformation of Natural and of Cultural Environments

The authors explore the possibility that the activity known as ‘conceptual art’, when evidenced in certain ways, may provide a link to the underlying structure of art. Projects of Vazan are analyzed with reference to this thesis. Art is looked at as an activity of signification (sign making) in which particular forms of conceptual art may represent ‘signifiers’ reduced to their most basic expression. The theoretical sustenance for this perspective is derived from the contemporary school known as structuralism. The premises of structuralism are briefly noted, with particular attention being paid to the observations of the French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss.

The sign function of the art point of view, propounded by Lévi-Strauss, is used for analyzing Vazan’s artistic transformations of natural and cultural environments. The former are described in terms of how they might be transformed into culturally meaningful arrangements and the latter are described as attempts to make complex man-made environments more comprehensible.