From Sacred Script to Contemporary Calligraffiti: Written Symbols, Encoded Meaning, and Visual Perception in the Works of Oleksandr Zinoviev

This article examines the transformation of written signs from instruments of verbal communication into autonomous elements of visual expression. It considers historical and contemporary relationships among symbolic writing, runic systems, Cyrillic vyaz’, calligraphy, graffiti, and calligraffiti, with particular attention to readability, legibility, symbolism, composition, and semantic interpretation.
The study employs a qualitative practice-based and visual-semiotic methodology. Its empirical material consists of selected works from the artistic practice of Oleksandr Zinoviev, including calligraffiti, monumental painting, graphic art, public-space interventions, and body art. The works were selected purposively because they demonstrate distinct mechanisms through which written signs are transformed: integration of text into a culturally recognizable symbol, semantic transformation of an existing urban inscription, encoding of philosophical or culturally significant texts, and adaptation of a letter-based visual language to different physical media.
Two case studies receive particular attention. The first is a composition in which the text of the National Anthem of Ukraine is incorporated into the form of the Ukrainian Tryzub against a blue-and-yellow background. The second documents the transformation of an obscene public inscription into a calligraphic composition containing the message “Do not shout about how one should live — simply show it.”
Drawing on semiotics, multimodality, visual communication, typography, and cultural-memory studies, the article proposes an analytical distinction between visual recognition, legibility, readability, symbolic recognition, and semantic interpretation. It further proposes a two-stage model in which an artwork may first be encountered primarily as visual form and subsequently reinterpreted after its encoded textual content is disclosed.
Because this is a practice-based study rather than an empirical audience study, the model describes the visual and conceptual structure intended by the artist and the interpretive possibilities generated by the works; it does not claim to demonstrate universal viewer responses.
The analysis suggests that reduced textual readability does not necessarily eliminate communicative meaning. Instead, calligraffiti can redistribute meaning across visual form, linguistic information, cultural symbolism, and contextual explanation.

calligraffiti, calligraphy, graffiti, visual communication, written sign, symbol, Cyrillic vyaz’, runes, visual perception, text encoding, monumental art, street art, cultural memory

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