Rosalind Krauss- Clock time

Rosalind Krauss discusses Christian Marclay and one of his most latest works “The Clock”, a twenty-four hour running piece, comprised of fragments of commercial films which collectively transition from on to another. In Krauss’ deconstruction of the piece, she recognises not only the formal qualities and cinematic technique but also the viewer experience and audience perception and role in being a part of this semi-interactive 2010 work.

Marclay is seen through this work as taking “pure synchronicity” to new heights. Credit is given to Marclay in the films ability to smoothly transition from one scene to the next while simultaneously holding time with the real and present. Krauss uses examples of “Ideological state apparatuses” and the cinematic techniques of cutaways that add to the fluidity and worth of the work. Cutaways, used in film to inform viewers of the temporal unfolding of events within the films narrative, is utilised in Marclay’s “The Clock” as the plot of the work, where scenes of the protagonist glancing at their watch or backdrops of a ticking clock make viewers weary or conscious of time and in doing so call audiences to glance or query actual time, only to realise the film itself and the present are synchronised to the minute. With this Marclay creates a tension or form of anticipation of counting down towards something dramatic happening.

 Unlike typical films, “The clock” is seen to make to viewer somewhat part of the scene, in feeling included in the shared aspect of time, and aware of oneself in that particular moment in time also adds to the work’s value, as opposed to being purely a spectator. Derrida’s concept of “self-presence” being fiction can be seen as threatened by Marclay’s extension or exploration of this specific medium , playing on the idea of the self-present instant, the revelation of self-presence in the “ now-effect” and the notion of transforming the reel time of film into the real time of waiting.