Double Sided Devils
Double-Sided Devils are an exploration of contradictory language, plastered on both sides of wooden nickels.
I’ve always been fascinated by the automatic aspects of our language, and I wanted to investigate the relationship we have with some of the phrases we take for granted. What do these phrases mean to us? Does the original meaning impact how we use them still? Mostly, how do we rationalize the contradicting nature of competing idioms?The project started with a book. After researching and collecting various idioms, each a contemporary phrase regardless of its origin, I created a booklet to juxtapose each contradiction. As you thumb through the book, opposing pages would challenge each other.
Product
Research
The booklet didn’t go far enough. It allowed the viewer to be an inactive participant, but that’s not how we use language. Especially with idioms, these are things we find ourselves meditating on in moments of philisophical concern. Are we seeking validation, correction, advice, or a challenge? I wanted to put this moment of hesitation into the hands of the viewer.
Then I thought, “What if it didn’t
That thought became the creative direction. I took each illustration and engraved them onto wooden nickels, symbols of a meaningless currecny.
With opposing forces on either side, these coins put emphasis on the useless nature of idioms. The existence of these coins is superfluous. By putting a moment’s meaning into an action dependent on chance, whichever idiom you’re lucky to land on doesn’t really matter. It’s kind of all irrelevant. That’s the point. Meaningless begets fun.
Then I thought, “What if it didn’t
matter what the viewer was seeking?
What if it came down to chance?”
That thought became the creative direction. I took each illustration and engraved them onto wooden nickels, symbols of a meaningless currecny.
With opposing forces on either side, these coins put emphasis on the useless nature of idioms. The existence of these coins is superfluous. By putting a moment’s meaning into an action dependent on chance, whichever idiom you’re lucky to land on doesn’t really matter. It’s kind of all irrelevant. That’s the point. Meaningless begets fun.