Clocked Perspective was inspired by a little-known painting made by G. Ulbricht in 1825, on display in the Cabinet of Astronomy and Physics at the Orangerie, a building located in Kassel’s Karlsaue Park. The painting is a landscape dominated by a castle with a huge clock on the facade; the hands mark the time correctly as moving sculptural elements on the pictorial surface, yet upon closer examination the picture presents notable flaws in perspective. The castle is portrayed at an angle, with a vanishing point to the left, but the clock meets the viewer face-on.
Interested in this discrepancy of perspective and how time can be both uniform and dissimilar, Anri Sala created this piece for outdoor display; it not only tells time but is also a representation of time in “perspective”. The clock does not merely occupy or adorn the space where it is placed, for beyond its aesthetic or physical attributes and its practical function as an object, this work triggers reflections on the concepts of perspective, space and time.
This work from Colección Jumex was produced for the thirteenth dOCUMENTA, one of the most important contemporary art shows in the world, held in the German city of Kassel every five years.
The Museo Jumex plaza is the first purely urban setting to welcome Clocked Perspective. Previously it was displayed in Karlsaue Park in Germany (2012), Regent’s Park in London (2012)and the English county of Somerset. The presence of the clock modifies the perception of the space, calling for new uses and experiences, as the museum plaza occupies a unique position halfway between the public and private domain.
- Sala, Anri