Objet D’Art: Eclipse Clock
Every month, Interview picks an artist- or designer-created object that straddles the line between aesthetics and function. Subdued tastes need not apply.
Collaborating with PK Shop, the independently curated subsidiary retail store of Paul Kasmin Gallery, artist Ivan Navarro saw an opportunity of cosmic proportions. Given free reign to design a limited edition object, Navarro devised a clock that measures time by a crescent of light that advances and recedes across a circular screen. The effect mimics a solar eclipse. “It brings together two notions that I’ve often been interested in: light and time,” says the artist, who is best known for his optical neon and mirror sculptures. “Incorporating the metaphor of an eclipse into a functional clock appealed to me.” At noon, the clock is entirely lit; at midnight, it’s completely dark. The concept reconnects the practice of telling time with earthbound observations of the sky–the origin of human’s grasp of time. The word “petrification,” etched on the glass, relates to “the history of the earth,” says Navarro. An eclipse, like the passage of time, is a universal phenomenon.
The Eclipse Clock will be available at PK Shop beginning in November.
Objet d’Art runs every month. For more, click here.
