The Clock

The Clock by Christian Marclay was amazing at SFMOMA. Created over the course of three years, it is a film made from thousands of clips of known commercial movies that show clocks, watches or mentions of time that correspond to the actual time into a 24 hour video montage so that it is both a film and a time piece.

As someone who always wears a watch and often sets activities within set time frames, it was an interesting film to watch. The film itself let me know what time it was. Initially I looked for the reference to time—like looking for Waldo in Where’s Waldo books. Traditionally time had been set by the sun, the moon and the seasons, but now time is set by time pieces and we allot set times to complete activities in our post-industrial and digital age. The film examines our understanding of time in this age—its limitedness, its preciousness, its value. But the film briefly sets us free from the taskmaster by giving us narratives which may or may not correspond to the time of day. It is worth seeing and considering.