Peoples Republic of South Devon

Clockwork (art review)

March 5th, 2008

posted by Cptn
- Viewpoint Gallery, Plymouth College of Art and Design, Feb 27th - March 8

Time, what has become of me? As Art Garfunkel might ask.

Well, Art, you could do worse than pop along to Clockwork by Bill Wroath and Vicki Lloyd, the latest exhibition at the prolific Viewpoint gallery at PCAD.

The exhibition is an investigation into the race against time we’re all up against - or rather, as the blurb puts it “‘Clockwork’ examines our continuing fascination with time and how, in our bid to control it, we have continually devised increasingly complex mechanisms with which to measure its passing.”

The pair set up a factory where they battled with the monotony of producing water clocks - they clocked in and clocked out and then experimented with the water clocks in different settings. They also carried out a number of interviews - the one I watched asked the female interviewee to calculate the length of a minute - she was quite accurate. And as the clockmaker in the adjacent screened interview, you are inclined to ask what it is that makes you tick.

The water clocks that were made, rather than let their water drip out through a hole in the bottom to count the time, drew up water through that hole until they sank. It’s a demonstration of our ancients’ loose control of time. The show’s film of this is beautiful and swimmingly placid.

But is a production line a modern way of measuring time? I’ve measured out my life in the spinning clock of my operating system (PC users will be more familiar with the dripping sands of time).

“The more obsessed we are with ‘keeping’ time the less time we have,” they say, and given the nature of the show it doesn’t feel a foreboding Time’s Winged Chariot-type quote. It’s more an indictment of what we are doing with the accuracy we try to capture on our wrists.

Ah, if only the ingredients of super-accurate experimental watches contained jitterbugium rather than ytterbium, we could just kick up our heels and dance. Now, that’s the kinda toe-tapping time-keeping we can all while away our days with.

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Entry Filed under: Arts