Time [detail]

Detail of the 'Time' art project: Clock

 

To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven: (…)

 

A time to tear, and a time to sew;

a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

A time to love, and a time to hate;

a time of war; and a time of peace.

(Ecclesiastes 3:7-8)

 

Based on this phrase from the Bible I made this cardboard.There is so much wisdom in this phrase that I decided to make a typographic project from it. This was my first big experiment with black letters on a white background with fineliner and marker.

 

I tried to let the typography tell the story: I love trying to say something not only with words but also with typography. ‘A time to tear’ is at the top of the cardboard: the letters are actually tearing themselves. Looking at the ‘time to sew’ in the middle, you will see that it is actually made of threads, curling and forming words. War and hate are written in big black fonts, while peace and love are made of lighter capitals. And ‘a time to speak’ and ‘to keep silence’ form a sound symbol, together with the hourglass.

In the central you can read the moral of the story: “what time is it?” It can be time of war or time of peace today; this can change from minute to minute. The crack right through the cardboard stands for the enormous difference between all these contradictions and the strange way in which they belong together.

If you take a closer look to the clock you’ll see it’s actually not a clock. You will see the numbers 21, 3, 7 and 8. These numbers refer to the place of the text in the Bible: the 21st book, 3rd chapter, 7th and 8th verse.

 

Done