Time for some Christian Marclay

It’s a sunny autumnal Friday and I am keen to see a work at Tate Modern that I’ve heard so much about. I first pop to the displays at the Boiler House to see some old friends including an Anthony Caro, Marcel Duchamp and Keith Sonnier. As I cross over the Level 4 Bridge to the Blavatnik Building, I am struck by the strong smell of paint. I look down to see the Turbine Hall having a floor laid and painted and, is that a the start of a huge portrait? I quickly google next commission and am pleased yet disappointed, it’ll be a few weeks yet until I can see Tania Bruguera’s interactive political gesture let alone be brought to tears in her crying room.

Tania Bruguera, Turbine Hall, Tate Modern, September 21, 2018

Now in the Blavatnik Building, I am aware that I may have to queue to experience the work I’ve come to see. I’m hoping the lunchtime slot I’ve plumped for will stand me in good stead. Yes, it does, I’m straight in and happily ensconced on a comfy sofa. It’s 13.10. How do I know? Christian Marclay and his team of researchers have provided the time for me and the other hundred or so people here. Christian Marclay’s The Clock is billed by Tate as a ‘mesmerising masterpiece of contemporary art’. And, I agree. I’m hooked by this video work within seconds. I think the audience must be playing the same game as me in their heads: spot the clock; spot the time; spot the film; spot the television programme. Is it actually keeping to time? Yes, we’re moving forward and a montage of clips progresses through time in real time. I’m on a journey, literally in some clips, with railways clocks keeping me to time. Narratives shift and intertwine as a mixture of genres are spliced. It’s funny, time seems to move quicker than I thought. Perhaps it’s because I’m loving following Marclay’s travels in time, place and context.

Originally shown in 2010 at the White Cube, this is the first time the piece has returned to London and also the first time it’d been exhibited at Tate Modern. The museum acquired the work in 2012 together with the Centre Pompidou, Paris and The Israel Museum, Jerusalem. Today I last an hour and a half but I’ve been back again since to experience different times. Do go. You’ve got until 20 January 2019 so there is time...

https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/christian-marclay-clock