THE ART OF TWO

 

There is a quiet media revolution in advertising going on. Rooted in finding alternatives to the “super flat media viewing age.” One noted example of this is advertisers increasingly using split screens. Often one side is playing a sporting event and the other the advertisers message. On the surface not related to each other. The technical name for this form of presentation is the Diptych.

Some actually feel it’s annoying, but there is mental magic at work here. Diptychs have their roots in art presentations that date back to medieval times. Painters would create different religious scenes on wood panels and then link them together.

When both sides of Diptych are taken together, they illuminate different perspectives. The viewer is left wondering what the common elements are. Today’s marketing goal is to get people to pause, to think, to absorb the message fully. And most of all remember it.

Banksy the street artist often uses Diptychs, perhaps the most famous one the girl reaching for the red balloon shaped heart, just out of reach in the next frame.

So why bring back that art form now? The answer may rest in the nature of our times. The complexity all around us. Perhaps we are now used to not being able to figure everything out. Even suspicious and dismissive of messages that are too simple. 

 Perhaps artistic efforts are best when they are married to business. As Andy Warhol once said, “Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art.”