Christian Marclay The Clock 2010, single channel video, duration: 24 hours © the artist Courtesy White Cube, London and Paula Cooper Gallery, New York |
Coinciding with Marking Time will be the southern hemisphere debut of
Christian Marclay’s all encompassing epic, The Clock. Marclay has gathered excerpts from films across history that reference a particular moment in time, often using the image of a clock face, but also some with less literal means. These are then compiled to create a 24-hour installation that ticks away, minute by minute, in real-time. Of course, because the gallery is closed overnight, generally only half the work is ever seen. But on the opening night and each subsequent Thursday viewers will be able experience The Clock for its full 24-hour cycle—perfect for lovers of endurance art.
MCA has also teamed up with Performance Space who have curated Local Positioning Systems, a comprehensive live art program to celebrate the opening, The aim of the program is to blur “the threshold between the museum and its surrounding environment and communities” by creating participatory, site-specific works in spaces ranging from the first aid room, library and education facilities to the forecourt and surrounding landscape of Sydney Harbour and The Rocks.
Zoe Walker & Neil Bromwich Celestial Radio 2004-2012 mixed media dimensions variable courtesy and © the artist |
Julie-Anne Long, The Invisibility Project [performance documentation] 2010. Performance Space LiveWorks Festival, Sydney photo Heidrun Löhr |
Also on an intimate scale, Jason Maling is offering to cure gallery goers of their art institution related anxieties—issues ranging from “mild conceptual perturbation to severe relational deficiency” (website). Physician (May 5–18), consists of private consultations with Maling guiding the viewer through a range of “pneumatic rituals designed to activate belief receptors.” Perhaps all museums will soon instigate such a program. (In April Maling will also be presenting another curious adventure - Fuguestate, in Melbourne, http://www.fuguestate.info.)
Lara Thoms, The Experts Project #32 Decorative Toilet Roll Holders, 2010 photo Shirley Robinson |
Latai Taumoepeau’s i-Land X-isle (May 25-26) promises both visual beauty and a potent political message. In this installation and endurance work, Taumoepeau will perform under large blocks of ice suspended using traditional Tongan lashing techniques. Located in view of the harbour, the work references the effect of the melting of the polar icecaps on Small Island Developing States (SIDS).
Bennett Miller, Dachshund U.N. [performance documentation] 2010. Next Wave Festival, Melbourne photo Tomasz Machnik |
Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Marking Time; Christian Marclay, The Clock; Local Positioning Systems curated by Performance Space; Museum of Contemporary Art Sydney; March 29-June 3; http://www.mca.com.au/; http://www.performancespace.com.au/
RealTime issue #107 Feb-March 2012 pg. web
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