Friday, January 21, 2011

Vernissages NYC | "The Clock" @ Paula Cooper Gallery

Photo credit: Paula Cooper Gallery

Time is the centerpiece of "The Clock" the 24-hour long video work by Christian Marclay, premiered in the US at Paula Cooper Gallery tonight: a 24-hour screening started at 6 pm and will end at 6pm tomorrow.

The French artist edited a multitude of film excerpts 'quoting" the passage of time. Many different timepieces, including clock towers, wristwatches and alarm clocks,
narrate the passage of time synchronized with the actual time when the video screening happens in the gallery.

As an artist myself working with different concepts and manifestation of time I found "The Clock" very clever and quite intriguing ---yet lacking of depth. It was entertaining and amusing, and definitely a tremendous effort (I would like to learn more about "the making"); a question I kept asking myself going back home in this extremely cold night was "Why"?

But I don't think a question often asked in the contemporary art scene at least in mainstream NYC art galleries.

24-hour screenings will be organized every Friday through Saturday during the course of the exhibition beginning at 10 am. More information can be found here.