This possibly falls more under the realm of design, but it’s pretty damn cool. Stockholm design studio Humans Since 1982’s “Clock Clock,” an arrangement of analog clocks that appears to tell time digitally. On a related note, New York seems to have experienced the most sublime art experience of recent memory with Christian Marclay’s “The Clock” at Paula Cooper Gallery. Major art reviewers quickly deemed it a masterpiece and there are people lined up at all hours of the day and night outside the gallery and around the block waiting to get in to see this film, and people are returning for repeat viewings. What is it about? Here is the word, from Jerry Saltz: “A spectacularly simple idea makes for a spectacular 24-hour film, a work as strong and strange as Warhol’s Empire… Christian Marclay mixes thousands of snippets from films depicting the passage of time — every minute of the day. Clocks and watches, digital and analog, people speaking the hour, are all combined and presented in real time so that when you see a clock reading, say, 2:22 am from an Alfred Hitchcock film, that’s the actual hour in the real world.  Marclay creates a mesmerizing contrapuntal tapestry of narrative, precious moments, banal nothings, suspense and mystery. At the same time there’s an abstract aural symphony of interwoven sound, music, speaking parts, tonalities, static rattles and other things that go bump in the night. All this creates addictive audio-visual-conceptual rhythms. On Fridays, at Paula Cooper Gallery, where The Clock is screened during regular gallery hours, there are continuous 24-hour screenings. At midnight the place is packed as the clock strikes 12:00. I’m told things get really strange around 5:30 am, when, as Marclay has observed, “Not much happens between 5:00 and 5:30 am in the movies. That’s the time when we dream the most… so there are a lot of dream sequences.”  “Marclay’s The Clock is an elliptically thrilling, endlessly enticing, must-see masterpiece.” And now here is the only clip of “The Clock” I can find on the web. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8svkK7d7sY <3 he(heart)art
westernfrontauction: Ryan Peter, Untitled (Feet), 2010 Acrylic and spray paint on plastic paper 13 x 19” Estimated market value $700 Ryan Peter holds a BFA (2004) and an MFA (2008) from The University ofBritish Columbia.  He was a finalist for the 11th Annual RBC CanadianPainting Competition that exhibited at the Musée d’art contemporain deMontréal and at The Power Plant Gallery in Toronto.  He hasparticipated in recent exhibitions at Republic Gallery and EquinoxGallery, Vancouver. A great piece in the Western Front auction next week by Ryan Peter. The choice of plastic as painting support is unusual, reminds me of Holger Kalberg’s paintings on polypropylene.
westernfrontauction: Ed Pien, A Man of no particular talent, 2005 Ink, charcoal and wax on paper 11.25  x 15” Estimated market value $1,000 Ed Pien received his BFA from UWO and MFA from York University. Pien has shown at the Drawing Centre, New York; La Biennale de Montreal; Centro Nacional de las Artes, Mexico City; The Goethe Institute, Berlin; Bizart, Shanghai and the National Art Gallery of Canada. His work is included in numerous public and private collections, including the Fine Arts Museum in Montreal, Musée d’art contemporain de Montreal, the Art Gallery of Ontario and the National Art Gallery of Canada Western Front’s annual auction preview is this Wednesday. Check it out if you’re in Vancouver!
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