The Mayans weren’t the only ones obsessed with time. Everybody’s favorite punk-attitude visual collage artist Christian Marclay has crafted another epic work dealing with our years/minutes/days fascination, this time called simply The Clock. (Side note: 2012, the year where lazy music “journalists” the world over used Mayans/2012/THE END OF TIME as a lede for everything. I’m sorry, everyone. Just not sorry enough not to do it.) The Clock has been ticking (sorry, again) its way across the world, with recent appearances at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, and the Hayward Gallery at London’s Southbank Centre. And now, as of Friday, July 13, The Clock is doing its thang at New York’s Lincoln Center.
The Clock is a 24-hour video piece by Mr. Marclay, featuring thousands and thousands of film clips, from the silent era to today, that features an exact time on a clock/watch/sundial mentioned in dialogue. And here’s the rub: it tells accurate time. So at, say, 2:22 AM, the film clip onscreen will say, “Giancarlo, can you believe it’s 2:22 AM?” or what have you. Isn’t that CRAAAAAAAAAZY? Yep, according to Lincoln Center, it is “both a work of art and literally a working timepiece.” Marclay also composed a soundtrack for this puppy, so you can revel in his genius on multi levels of multimedia.
Admission is free, but major crowds are expected and ya gotta wait outside, so pack sunscreen. Or booze. Or snacks or whatever.
• Lincoln Center: http://lincolncenterfestival.org/index.php/2012-the-clock
