The operation of a mechanical apparatus, the tension between the orderly-systematic and the uncontrollable, and the arrangement of narratives that deviate from the linear sequence and the temporal progression are at the core of Guy Goldstein’s clock project. The hands of the clock are removed, the mechanism is taken apart, and Goldstein uses only the second hands in two different mechanisms. A small lock of horse hair revolves, being dipped in a small cup of ink, then softly caresses the table top; the second hand thus becomes a brush which stains papers placed on the table, imprinting them with ink marks which accumulate to form the signs of time. The clock hands draw the temporal sequence, and in the next rotation they erase and eliminate their own history, forming a closed, multi-layered circuit, a cycle of marking and erasing which raises thoughts about a super-mechanism that animates the hands, moving time and the world.
The motion of the clocks illustrates the visual aspect of the passage of time, whose essence is space-time relations and man’s constant attempt to control and regulate them. Unexpected encounters between the hands occur within the orderly array on the table: they meet, get stuck, struggle, and randomly break free. The amount of ink on the “brushes” likewise changes, so that at times they are more saturated and at others—drier; accordingly, they sketch smooth-textured lines or squirt uncontrollably, as they dance on the paper amidst their own traces. The sheets of paper are collected every now and then and presented as drawings of an accumulation of time, as representations of different temporal perceptions: permanence vs. change; as a line which guides from the beginning of the world to its end, or as its recurrent cyclical antithesis.
Conceptually, the project draws on the set of paradoxes introduced by Greek pre-Socratic philosopher Zeno of Elea in support of his teacher, Parmenides, who regarded reality as an indivisible, unchanging unity. Zeno’s paradoxes thus demonstrate the contradictions inherent in the perception of reality as a plurality of phenomena.
