A SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS OF SIGNS IN BANKSY'S GRAFFITIES.

@

A SEMIOTIC

AI',{ALYSIS OF

SIGNS

IN BANKSY'S GRAFFITIES.

A THESIS

Sabmltted

ln Partlnl

of the Reqalrement

for

the Degree of

Sarjana

Sasffa

BY:

HAI\IGGA

P,RASATYA 05 185 065

ENGLISH

DEPARTMENT. FACUTTY

OF

TETTERS

ANDALAS UNIVERSITY

ABSTRAK

Skripsi

ini

membahas tentang tanda

-

tanda yang terdapat pada

grafiti

Banksy-Tanda yang ada dibagi atas dua macam, yaitu linguistik dan non-linguistik. Kedua tanda rcrsebut dijabarkan meRurut fixigsinya

menfuk

kepada model pemb:tgiriii tiinda seileiti

yang dikemukakan oleh Ferdinand de Saussure. Data penelitian

ini

diambil dari tiga buah

buku

elektronik Banksy,

yaitu

Banksy

-

Exstencilism

Blackbooh Banksy

-

Wall

and

Piece,

dm Banl*y

-

Banging Yoirr Head Agairist A

Briak WaIl.DEtb

dirimbil sebiriiyrik 7

titik

pengamatan dalam bentuk gambar (image) dikarenakan bentuk gambar

ini

adalatt bagran terpenting dari penelitian ini.

Analisis deta

dilakulam

petama

dengan

melakiikrin penjabiran

tsnda-tsndd

linguistik

(inguistic

signs)

dan nonJinguistik

(nonJinguistic signs)

melalui

model

pembagian

tanda yang

dikemukakan Ferdinand

de

Saussure.

Pada tahap

analisis

sel.rnjutnyq penulis menjabarlain m{ikna denotatif (denotative

medifirri/

<tain

konouitif

(connotative meaning) melalui tanda-tanda

linguistik

maupun tanda-tanda non-linguistik

dengan menggunakan teori Roland Barthes. Makna denotatif mencakup makna menurut kamus {firu mal<tra dasar dsri sebuah tanda Makna konotatif

men*kup

makm tamb{han

yang

melekat pada makna denotasi yang dipengaruhi

oleh faktor

emosi, sejarah, dan budaya. Makna

konotatif

sebuah

graffii

dianalisis dengan melihat hubungannya dengan makna Enda-tanda yirng

lain

melalui tabel

tahapal signifikasi

(arder

of

sigtdifieafion). Adapun tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah mengungkap makna denotatif dan konotatif yang terkandung dalam

grafiti

Banksy.

Dari snalisis tanda dirn me*na pada

grafiti

Banksy, diperoleh kesimpulan bstiwe

grafiti

Banksy yang dianggap sebagai

aktivitas

vandalisme

(vondalkm)

ternyata tidak

sekadar berhrjuan

mengkritik, menyindir, dan

mencemooh, melainkan

juga

bertujuan sebagai bentuk krreativitas, k-esennngan, seita luapnn sk-spresi <lari Banksy sendiri,

1.1.

I I

I

I

i

I

i \

CHAPTER

I

INTRODUCTION

Background

of

the Study

Human share the ideas through language. The manifestation

of

language rs

through

communication.

According

to

Geoffrey Leech

in

his book

Semantics, language has at least

five

functions

in

society.

1-

Conveying information (informational)

2-

Expressing the speaker's or

writer's

feeling or attitude (expressive)

3.

Directing or influencing the behavior or attitudes of others (directive)

4.

Creating an artistic efflect (aesthetic)

5.

Maintaining social bonds (phatic)

Seeing the functions

of

language above,

it

is believed that language

is

an essential

part

of

human

life-

We

use language

to

deliver our

messages

to

ottrcr

people.

And of

course,

we

need some

iorm of

ianguage

to

deliver our

messages

through

communication.

The

form

of

communication

can

be divided into

two

types, verbal

communication

and

non-verbal. communication.

Vetbal

commtmication deals

with

how

we share our ideas using our voices. Meanwhile, non-verbal communication deals

with

language as embedded process

of

human competence

to

convey

ide4

emotion, desire,

critical,

etc

without

voices such as gestures, pictures, signs, codes, etc.

As

I

mentioned before, human has

two

form of communication; verbal and

non-I i i ! I I I I I I I I I

\

I 1 { i 1 I

verbal

communication. Graffiti is

an

activity

of

painting

pictures

on

the wall.

Graffrti is

wall

pictures

which

use composition such as

color,

lines, shapes, and

volume

to write

words, sentences, and

to

draw pictures. Nowadays,

graffiti

artist usually (name

of

person

who

does the

graffiti

activities) uses spray paint as their

tool to

make

their

graffiti

on

the

wall.

Before human

invent

spray

paint,

graffiti

commonly was made

by

chalk and paint

brush-Wall

painting activities is started from

primitive

times. In that time,

graffiti

was a media

of

spiritual

and mystical

to

gain the

spirit

for

the hunter

in

hunting

activities.

In

ancient

Egypt times,

graffiti

was located

in

pyramid walls-

In

this time,

graffiti

had

its function

as

jounrey

map

&at

Pharaoh

will

see

in

beyond the

world.

And

the

history

goes

to

ancient Rome Empire.

In

the

ancient Rome, the

graffiti

activities were used

to

show the

war victory

process

in

conquering other

Empires. When Christian

was

prohibited

in

Rome,

graffiti

was

used

as

govemment's propaganda

to

discredit Christian people. Besides

that graffiti

was

also used

to

criticize

government because

of

unsatisfactory

of

the people

to

the government.

The existence of

different

social class causes ttre

difficulty

to certain

goup

of

society

in

expressing

their art

activities-

As

a result

of

this

condition,

those groups

utilize

media

which

available

in

most

of city

part,

walls. Most

of graffiti

works illustrates the rmsatisfactory toward social condition.

Since

graffiti

is an

activity

of

drawing pictures

in

wall,

we can say that

in

graffiti,

we

will

find

many signs

within.

The purpose

of graffid

anist is

to

deliver their messages though their signs that they create through the

wall. In

70's,

graffiti

spread

to

America and

Europe.

In

this time, graffiti

was

used

as

a

group

of

people's

identity,

Besides spreading the

graffiti

in town's

walls, the

graffiti

artist also

draw

their graffiti

pictures

in

subway's

wall. City

authorities consider this

graffiti

attitude as vandalism activities. In Unites State of America, every state has

its own law to

vague

graffiti.

San Diego,

California

and

New

York

has released

their regulation about

graffiti.

They declare ttrat

graffiti

is

illegal

activities.

In

graffiti field,

there

is

a

famous

graffiti artist

named

Banksy-

He

is

believed

to

be a native

of

Yate, South Gloucestershire, neaf,

Bristol,

England and

to

have been

born

tn

1974,

but

there

is

substantial

public

uncertainty about his

identity

and personal and

biogaphical

details.

His

works

is

spread out

in

England especially

in

Bristol,

New York,

even

in

Ramallah fortress,

the

border between Palestine

and

Israel. [n

London,

most

of

his graffiti

works

pull

the trigger

of

contoversies because

in

some

of

his

graffiti

works. However, on the streets of the

United

Kingdom

near London, Banksy continues to gain international recognition

and fame

for

his

graf6ti. The fact

is

that

Banksy's "street

arti'

has

become

immensely popular

with

both pedestrians and private

art

collectors

alike.

In

the

last

several years,

there have

been

a

number

of

exhibitions

and

auctions

of

Banksy's art

work

as his popularity has

soared-Banksy uses rats as images in many of his pictures. His most famous sffeet

paintings

are

a

series

of

black-and-white stenciled rats-

Many of

these

rats

are

created

to

be

larger than

life.

The rats

have become immensely

popular

with

London

pedestrians.

A

"gangster

rat,"

painted

on

a wall

near

the

Smithfield

market, wears

a

peace-sign

medallion

and carries

a

sign

that

says

"Welcome

to

Hell",

another rat holding a sign that reads "Please Love

Me."

CHAPTER

4

CONCLUSION

In

conclusion,

I

found the

linguistic

sign and non

-

linguistic

sign

in

some

of

Banksy's graffities.

In

the graffiti,

I

identified

the linguistic sign from

the

words,

phrases, sentences,

and texts. The non

-

linguistic

signs

are

classified

througfu the sign of the

graffiti.

The demand

of

this

research is

to

categorize

tle

linguisic

sign and non

-linguistic sign

in

these

signs and

meanings expressed

by

Banksy through his

graffities. In this research,

I

found that

all of

signs are combined

with

combination

of

linguistic sign and non

-

linguistic

sigr.

After

this

language

phenomenon,

I

concluded

that

it

is

easier

for graffili

viewer

to

comprebend the

sign

wittr linguistic

siga

The meaning

of

the

sign

is not

defined

only

by dividing

it

into linguistic

sign

and

non

-

linguistic

sign. Roland Barthes

atrrss

that

meaning include

denotation

md

connotation,

both

of

meaning as order

signification.

I

found

that

the meaning

of

signs

in

Banksy's graffities plays important roles, since the

factor

that

influences

the

reader

or

the viewer

of

Banksy's

graffities is

based

on

the

meaning ofthese signs, especially the connotative meaning

in

contexts

of

graffiti.

Based on

graffiti

artist such as Banksy, these signs

in

his graffities contain

social

critic

messages.

This

research

is

conducted

to

transform

the

society perspective

about

graffiti.

Most

governments

with

their power

propagate the

society that

graffiti

is one

of

form

of

vandalism. They believe that

grdffiti

should

be

vanished

in

cities

wall.

This

research

prov€s

that Banksy's graffities

is

important

ta

anaLyze. Through

graffiti,

Banksy wants to

tell

us that

graffiti

is not a

vandalism

activrty. Through

graffiti,

Banksy wants

to

criticize

government

capitalistic system which naffows the freedom to express.

Finally, Banksy's graffrties

with

the

sign

is

not

only

the matter

of

vandalism.

or

no!

but

also as

a

medium

to

express ideas

and

to

criticize

the govemment and big corporations.

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QA04.

Banging Your Head Against A

BrickWall,Retieved

January 13"

2009 from http //www.b,anlay.co.uk

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