One piece of work that I have found total mesmerisising and enthralling this year has been 'The Clock' by Christian Malarky. I was totally moved and mesmerised by how a piece of film was totally able to transform me and take me on such a journey within an hour and fifteen minutes.
Not one to usually have much time for film in art galleries i was sceptical as to how much I would really enjoy the work. I often find the subject matter of such film to be ambiguous and/or needlessly shocking and vulgar which usually just feels for the plain sake of it.
It consisted of 24 hours of painstakingly skilled and persistent work which I can only imagine must have taken a matter of years to source. The footage involves a constant referral to the subject of time and the movement of time in found film clips which are stitched together into a looping 24 hour real time video. The way in which it is constructed is as seamless as the film is varied, featuring seemingly opposite scenes / characters and narratives perfectly woven back together into the re formation of something altogether more powerful. The viewer is taken on a journey, seemingly unimportant at what point they start viewing, which transcends active normality and takes the twists and turns that every great film engages in, featuring builds up in tension, comedy moments, catch-phrases and empathy. With the constant referral back to the time and the ever ticking clock, a feeling of minor panic and impending doom is gently and subtlety ridden on a emotional roller coaster between the pages of great films in their own right. With some clever editing and the use of overlapping sound+music clips the narrative is sustained loosely throughout your viewing time and although really there is no overall story other than that everyone is kind of running out of time and going through something humanly relate-able your overall impression is that there is a story linking all the events. Its only after i left that I kind of realised that nothing in particular was actually happening, I think this is a credit to the way it is constructed.
One is constantly astounded and impressed at the sheer attention to detail at how it has been sourced and put together. I remember viewing it with either open mouth or wide smile at how kind of magical it was the way everything pieced together. I was think a lot of the time how much of a shame it was that i was only watching from 3:20pm and that i really wanted to come back at 9 in the morning or 10:30 at night to check what was happening then. The Overall effect of the film is a very poignant and stark reminder at the kind of futility of time and the constant presence of it running out. An oh so relatable human fear since the dawn of time. A hugely effective and powerful piece of artistry.
MARCEL DUCHAMP
A man who actively and publicly challenged the role of what constituted as a work of art, Duchamp sparked one of the most famous debates separating classical art lovers from contemporary. With 'Fountain' the replica urinal placed into a Paris exhibition in 1917 under the alias R. Mutt, Duchamp proposed that any object could constitute as art because it was not the act of creating the work which separated it, rather the decision of placing the object. It had to do with taking an object away from its original functionality and re defining its purpose as an art form by putting it in the situation whereby it is viewed as art. He elevated a new significance and meaning by endowing the urinal with a title and by having it hung in situ. The piece is famed for being the most influential and important pieces of contemporary art because of the radical thought process behind it. This sparked a turning point for post modernist art. Duchamps Fountain is yet another example of how artists elevate innanimate, overlooked entities into a credible art form by changing the context or presentation.
