The Clock

San Francisco's MOMA is about to close for 2 and half years for an extensive upgrade and expansion.  Meanwhile, this is the last week before the closing to view a massive tour de force of visual art called "The Clock".

"The Clock" was created by Christian Marclay, a Swiss and American artist born in San Rafael, California and raised in Geneva, Switzerland.  The work Marclay produced is a 24-hour compilation and editing masterpiece of Hollywood film clips, stock footage and sound design which completely engrosses the viewer.  How does he do this without an intact storyline?

The editing is stunning. The pacing is generated real time. The research surreal (over 3 years with a team of assistants) creating a linear time space continuum that propels the viewer forward second by second.  Yet it has been called gimmicky.  Ah, how jaded we are.

Pulled from hundreds of hours of footage to find that exact clock, watch or timepiece to illustrate the 24 hour interval -- the audience is captivated by scenes familiar, hard-boiled, old, new and/or reminiscent of ordinary day to day life.  We see people looking at their watches and getting on trains;  alarm clocks going off to waken sleepyheads; gangsters coordinating watches for a bank heist; or Big Ben tolling the exact moment in time that the viewer is experiencing while watching the footage.  

Yet there is no storyline.  It is closer to a real life experience than any commercially produced feature film or documentary.  The viewer expects a story and is entertained by the randomness of the images.  I found that I made up a story just by watching clips flowing seamlessly into each other while studiously checking my watch with the screen's time piece images.  

There have been commercial films without an expected screenplay arc, for instance, Plup Fiction or Memento -- but within these films there was overall an outcome story to be told.  

As we are the stationary observers of "The Clock", this massive art piece works with our natural ability to tie disparate images and events together.  We come away convinced of the synchronicity of time that marks our existence and makes our life story noted in the vast arena of relativity.

Newsweek responded by naming Marclay one of the ten most important artists of today. Accepting the Golden Lion, Marclay invoked Andy Warhol, thanking the jury "for giving The Clock its fifteen minutes". ~ Wikipedia