Playing Idioms

Nathan Huff and Chris Rupp

Exhibition Website

- Jun 25 2016

An "idiom" is an expression whose meanings cannot be inferred from the meanings of the words that makes it up. Playing Idioms is an artistic collaboration between Nathan Huff and Chris Rupp. Come play the game of idioms with us! 

Just as “a picture is worth a thousand words,” so too might the repetitions of grouped words inspire innumerable pictures? Huff and Rupp respond to through sculptural interpretations placed against an infinity-mirrored box. The artists’ sculptural assemblages are not literal translations of sayings, but are reconfigured maxims, which are submitted as an extension of malleable bits of language. 

The exhibition will change every 3-4 weeks and will either be a collaboration between the artists or an independent interpretation by one artist or the other. By creating new monthly sculptures within the space, the artists will engage viewers with notions of cultural inclusion/exclusion, with the de-constructed vocabulary of a specific adage, or with the artists’ teasing humor based on the lingo of puns. The artists have included a box outside of the display for submissions of axioms or truisms from viewers. Please tell us your favorite idioms. The artists will respond to “sayings” that “capture their imaginations” and create a new sculptural window display every three to four weeks.

Exhibition overview from the Museum website

  • Sculpture
  • American
  • Contemporary
  • Chris Rupp
  • Nathan Huff

Exhibition Venues & Dates