Jorge Silva developed Pictorama, a set of three pieces based on the visual culture of signage and pictograms. Currently produced in mostly ephemeral communication platforms like vinyl and other polymers, this transposition into stone offers a different context and meaning. The author inserts yet another dimension, offering the illusion of movement through designs created with the most basic elements of pictograms.

Pictorama, by Jorge Silva

This proposal is based on the appropriation of, or reference to, a graphic communication system: signage. It is composed of pictograms, well-known signs in contemporary visual culture. This element of communication design, which is recurrent in the urban context, never had a consolidated medium. In the past, signs indicating location and roads, which were pioneers of coded communication systems, were made of mineral composites such as cement.

Multiplied into original compositions and produced using unconventional materials and in surprising sizes, these signs put forth a different message, achieved through their recontextualization. Like conventional signage, Pictorama aims to induce actions and reactions, with values relating to identity, sharing and progress. The human figure, which is one of the universal images of signage systems, is the protagonist of the compositions, portrayed in unusual acrobatic configurations that lend Pictorama an aspect of entertainment and humour, as well as an obvious reference to the title of the project, Still Motion.

Although the project reveals compositions with well-defined and coherent proportions, the fact that the base pattern is easily reproduced allows for the multiplication and alteration of the standard used, allowing for applications onto large murals in public spaces or open structures of large companies.