There are many forms experimental typography can take, and generally speaking, the wackier the better. But this sculptural series by Japanese artist Takayuki Ogawa inspires some serious grins.
Oral:phabet is an exploration of the human mouth in movement, and it captures multiple mouths pronouncing A to Z and freeze-frames them with handcrafted clay so they form the letters of the alphabet.
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The realistic gleam of these pearly whites and the layers of miasma coating each tongue adds to the mild unease we feel from Ogawa’s sculptures. We’re simultaneously having flashbacks to root canals and thinking about Gene Simmons after looking at these awesome-but-creepy dentures.
Here’s an explanation from the artist via Spoon & Tamago:
The mouth alone is able to express many emotions. For example, in email we use the letter D to create the smiling emoticon :D. But what if we gave similar attributes to letters like B or N which are never used as expression forms?
Photos: Kyoutaro Hayashi
h/t Nerdcore
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