Chapter 3: Clock Time

Christian Marclay’s brilliant 2010 video installation The Clock has captivated audiences and received universal critical acclaim.¹ The Clock is both an artwork and a functional timepiece. It is a 24-hour montage of clips of time from films and television programmes. These clips capture people saying what the time is or images of timepieces showing the time. These clips are edited in real time. When The Clock is shown, it is synchronised to the viewer’s local time; if you are watching The Clock at 3.05 p.m., the video will show a clock showing that time, or someone stating the time. The Clock took three years to make and Marclay employed six research assistants on the project.² It was first shown at the White Cube Gallery in London and has subsequently been purchased by six galleries. By the summer of 2020, it had been shown in 35 different galleries, just over half of these in North American locations and the rest in Europe, Brazil, Russia, Israel (twice), Turkey and Japan.³