Christian Marclay, The Clock, 2010 (installation view), single channel video, duration: 24 hours © the artist. Courtesy White Cube, London and Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
The Clock is in its last weeks at The Polygon Gallery.
Christian Marclay’s cinematic tour-de-force is a 24-hour film montage with clips from decades of movies and TV shows synchronized with actual time on a 24-hour clock.
This means that those wishing to see The Clock are restricted to viewing the portion of the 24-hour film during the hours of 10 a.m.-5 p.m.—gallery hours. However, the Polygon has scheduled two more 24-hour screenings, so you can see, say, midnight or 6 a.m. (or both, if you’ve had enough coffee). The remaining 24-hour screenings are Sept 6 and 13; The Clock is scheduled to close Sept. 15. Find out more about Marclay’s piece below.
Recognized as one of the most important contemporary artworks of our time, The Clock is screening in a custom-built cinema within the gallery (101 Carrie Cates Ct., North Vancouver). The work montages film and television footage from the last 70 years, with time represented in each clip synchronized with actual time. The Clock is, in effect, a 24-hour timepiece.
From the media release: “Intricately edited in both its visuals and sound, The Clock is created from thousands of film fragments collaged into a minute-to-minute tapestry of modern life, with appearances by many familiar movie stars. Pre-dawn scenes include dream sequences; morning scenes depict characters waking up, drinking coffee, or heading out to work; evening shots show parties, dinners, and theatre shows. The pace of The Clock reflects daily rhythms, building toward noon, varying in the afternoon, and utilising both images and soundtracks to herald the work’s dramatic midnight climax. The mesmerising experience of following various narratives, settings and moods within the space of a few minutes, makes time unravel in countless directions at once.”
Christian Marclay, The Clock, 2010 (installation view), single channel video, duration: 24 hours © the artist. Courtesy White Cube, London and Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
During the 24-hour screenings, visitors will be able to see the evening and early morning sections of the film.
Christian Marclay won the Gold Lion Award at the Venice Biennale in 2011 for this now-famous artwork. Born in California, he was raised in Switzerland and lives and works in London. He is a visual artist and composer who explores the fusion of visual and audio cultures.
North Vancouver’s Polygon Gallery (located with a short walk of the Seabus terminal) was fortunate enough to book the piece, which comes with viewing specifications such as a purpose-built theatre and certain Ikea couches, on its way back to one of its North American homes (the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston). The Clock opened on July 5.
For more info on The Clock, visit thepolygon.ca.
