Art and reality: the construction of meaning

Abstract

This paper suggests the possibility of using the social representations model as the theoretical framework for the analysis of plastic creations. The idea here is to conceive works of art as social representations of a socially constructed reality. The concept of social representation is examined here in order to verify to what degree the assimilation of plastic creations to social representations, as they are understood in the model, would be correct. Whether the elaboration of an artistic image can be understood in function of anchoring and objectification processes is also debated here, as well as whether the social functions that are assigned to social representations can also be observed in relation to plastic creations. Once these general observations have been made, the paper looks at the possibility of analysing the plastic arts as social representations of space and, thus, as objectification mechanisms of space.