Last Saturday I visited the Hayward Gallery to see the The British Art Show, which was in its final days, it closed on Sunday 17th April. There were a couple of things I had been interested in seeing but nothing more so than Christian Marclay's "The Clock." For anyone who has not heard about this piece, "The Clock' is constructed out of moments in cinema when time is expressed or when a character interacts with a clock, watch or just a particular time of day. Marclay has excerpted thousands of these fragments and edited them so that they flow in real time" White Cube. This piece is fantastic, it truly is a craftsmanship of genius.
As you enter the room and take a seat, the film has been continuously playing. You enter at a certain time, I did at 14:32 and watch the sequences of film shots perfectly edited together. The time passes and with every second matched to real time you almost become part of the film, watching the time pass as the time watches you. Certain times have a crescendo, others have nothing at all, but what is wonderful is that for those minutes that you sit watching this film, your perception of time gets distorted. I left feeling like I had been in there for hours, but knowing that I had only been over 30 minutes! Brilliant.
This really is a stunning piece of cinema, wonderfully put together and amazingly produced, I could of watched the entire 24 hours and feel sorry I missed that opportunity on the 5th and 6th of March at the Hayward. If you haven't seen it, keep looking because I am sure it will be playing again in another gallery, another country soon.
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