Christian Marclay: The Clock


Mesmerising video installation at Tate Modern by Christian Marclay.

This work lasts 24 hours and puts together clips from films which show clocks and time so that they appear at the correct time of the real day. You can drift in and out, don’t worry you don’t have to watch 24 hours! The room is huge and set out like a cinema but with sofas but it’s a bit hard to find your way onto one in the dark.

I dropped in for about half an hour. Watching it seems to make time slow down as you wait for the next minute to tick over and you try to spot the clock and the time in the clip. You also play a game with yourself to try to name the film. I was delighted to spot Big Ben and the Liver Building in the section I saw. I also got a bit of James Bond, a few Westerns and lots of trains, which of course are a rich sauce of time references.

I want to try to go back at a different time to watch a bit more and see if the work feels different it you are watching different times of day.

Closes on 20 January 2019

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