The Clock

We had the great good fortune to see Christian Marclay's video installation at SF MOMA. The Clock is an extraordinary 24-hour-long montage of thousands of film clips that reference the time of day. As if that weren't enough, the piece matches real time minute for minute, making it a functional timepiece. We were there for 2 1/2 hours--9:30 am til noon; it is an addicting adventure. Some of the fun is in recognizing a few actors or being able to name some of the films, but the real delight is in letting the experience wash over you, experiencing the bizarre flow from minute to minute, and marveling at how many many references there are to time. The impression is that we would all be a lot less anxious if we weren't so bound to the concept of time: appointments, schedules, deadlines, meetings, oversleeping, missing trains, anticipating, worrying. What time is it? What time is it? What time is it?

After we left the museum I expected to see clocks all over the city, when in fact we found only a couple.