ART SEEN: Time is well spent watching The Clock at The Polygon
Credit to Author: Kevin Griffin| Date: Tue, 27 Aug 2019 20:11:59 +0000
Beginning: I went to see The Clock by Christian Marclay at The Polygon in North Vancouver. It was fantastic.
Ending: The Clock? Is that the film made up of bits of old film and TV clips of clocks and time edited together? Why would I see parts of movies I’ve already seen?
B: Are you serious? It’s one of the best things I’ve seen in ages. It’s so good people are going back two, three and more times. They can’t get enough.
E: So it’s entertaining.
B: No need to sneer. Yes, it’s one of those works that crosses over from the art world to everyone else. That doesn’t happen very often.
Even though it’s a 24-hour video of literally thousands of film clips from the history of cinema, it flows together as if it was a single film. As I watched, I was blown away by both the idea of the film and it’s execution. It’s amazing.
E: Really, I don’t get it. How could a bunch of disjointed pieces of movies be interesting?
B: It’s completely addictive. You know the marketing tag ‘Betcha can’t eat just one’ for potato chips? The Clock is exactly like that, except it’s much better for you (no trans fats). It’s the kind of experience where you end up telling yourself you’ll spend a few minutes seeing what the fuss is about. You end up staying an hour or more, regret leaving and make a mental note to come back again.
Detail from The Clock by Christian Marclay. Photo: Christian Marclay.
E: Okay, let’s say I go to The Polygon in North Vancouver to see it. I hate art videos showed in spaces that are so dark you can’t see where you’re walking. Or a decent place to sit.
B: Yes, it is shown in a darkened space. Don’t be such a whiner: use the Flashlight app on your phone if you need to see where you’re going.
Seating is on couches, 12 of them. It sounds great but I have to admit they’re not the best to sit on. I kept squirming trying to find a comfortable position. They’re specific Ikea sofas the gallery has to use for The Clock. Maybe the artist intended the seating to be deliberately uncomfortable to make you aware of your body. It worked for me: I lasted about an hour.
E: Isn’t the average length of time spent with a work of art something like 15 to 30 seconds? You smashed the average. You must be a very arty person.
B: Depends what you mean by ‘arty.’ I’ve always loved movies. When I was a child, my Mom used to take me to double features for 50 cents. I loved sitting in a darkened space and losing myself in a film.
E: I don’t mean to belittle your experience Beginning, but isn’t art supposed to be something more than losing yourself?
B: Well, I’m not going to get into defining art. I will say that the The Clock is a complex work. I went to the movies as a child, and still love the experience of losing myself in them as an adult. Movies have been described as waking dreams outside of clock time. If that’s the case, then The Clock definitely replicated the timelessness of the traditional movie experience. A big difference is that all the film clips are synchronized to real time. When it’s 3 o’clock in The Clock, it’s 3 o’clock wherever it’s being shown. The Clock is both an art film as well as a 24-hour clock: whatever time you enter or leave, that’s the time of the day.
It’s more than nostalgia. I kept recognizing films and actors and remembering the past. In fact, that’s part of the fun of watching The Clock. It’s contemporary because it resembles what we do everyday as we click, click, click from news clips and GIFs to dog and cat videos all day long.
E: Do people spend the entire 24-hours watching it? That’s quite a commitment.
B: Some do. Several film criticshavewritten about the experience. I don’t think I could take sitting in those sofas for that long.
The Polygon has already had three 24-hour screenings. If you’re game, you could choose to attend two more on Friday, Sept. 6 and Friday, Sept. 13.
I haven’t seen it but I’m told that the drama of the fragments really builds to 12 midnight.
The Clock by Christian Marclay is at The Polygon to Sunday, Sept. 15.
Beginnng and Ending are characters created by Kevin Griffin to help him write about art and visual culture.
Detail from The Clock by Christian Marclay. Photo: Christian Marclay.