photo by Dave Stokes
Ah, the Swiss and their talent for timework! Toronto culture lovers can mark their calendars and set their watches for 6 p.m. on September 21, when Swiss-American video artist Christian Marclay’s The Clock begins ticking at The Power Plant. Composed of thousands of film scenes depicting every minute in a 24-hour period and synchronized to local time, the installation has toured the globe to rave reviews. For its opening 48 hours, the work will screen, well, around the clock in its entirety (following that, it will be on view during regular gallery hours to November 25). Witness people waking, commuting and hungry for lunch; lovers squabbling then embracing; cowboys under the sun at high noon. Time, of course, ticks on undeterred, glimpsed in the background as a wristwatch or sundial, or filling the entire frame—as the face of Big Ben, for example. Marclay culls all
the minutiae of daily life from decades of cinema and presents it in a piece that offers
a surprisingly personal viewing experience, even in its epic proportions.
Stay, Dine, Do
