This project requires us to create an encounter that expresses one of the following categories of time:
- Measured time – actual or clock time, can be linear or circular time
- Experienced time – Subjective, psychological, implied or perceived time, varying for different individuals
- Edited time – Time that has been cut up and rearranged, can be linear or nonlinear.
- Biological time – A measure of time relating to bodily functions
Process
Artist references and inspirations
1. The Dialogue: Mineko Grimmer
Suspended over a framework of bamboo poles and guitar strings hangs a pyramid block of ice. Frozen in the ice are hundreds of pebbles. As the ice melts, the pebbles are released. As they fall through the bamboo and guitar strings, they produce sounds of a musical quality. Through the use of time, Grimmer has developed an instrument with the ability to play itself.
This work of Mineko Grimmer captivated my attention as it incorporated both the elements of time and sound. The usage of ice was a good example to show linear time too, because over time the ice will melt into water and even evaporated into water vapour.
(Source: https://www.theartofed.com/2014/04/18/new-ideas-in-art-time-as-an-element/)
2. flux III (from TIME) by Amy Stacey Curtis
One hourglass for each hour of biennial on 64-foot-long pedestal, Curtis inverted first hourglass at 12pm on Oct 9, 2010, marking start of exhibit. Subsequent hourglasses were inverted successively by Curtis and participants, one per exhibit hour.
Amy Stacey Curtis’ artwork deals with measured time and has an interesting element of audience interaction in the work where the audience gets to invert the hourglasses.
(Source: https://www.krakowwitkingallery.com/amy_stacey_curtis)
Click here for more artists references and inspirations shared in my previous post.
Brainstorming
This is a mind map showing my thought process when brainstorming for ideas:
My very initial idea was to create an artwork that had similar functions to an hourglass. I intended to build a sand sculpture on the top layer, just a simple one like a sandcastle, with the bottom layer just being an empty tray. When the slit separating the two layer is pulled opened, the sandcastle will gradually disintegrate as it falls through the hole into the bottom layer as shown below.
However, I thought that maybe using different materials apart from sand might be a better choice, since hourglass were already made of sand. After some consideration, I felt that green beans might be a good substitute. The fact that beans create a unique sound when they fall could contribute to the component of sound and also make the work more interesting. Symbolisms of using a bean: new life, new start, because they will grow into bean sprouts.
Construction of the hourglass and project proposal:
Click here for the PDF version of the Project proposal.
Idea and trial 1:
Using green beans instead of sand in the hourglass. However, after several attempts, the green beans failed to flow down the hourglass smoothly as it got stuck in the hole unless I create a really big hole like those in filter funnels. But that would mean I cannot regulate the flow of the beans as they would just flow straight down into the other bottle. The time spent for the beans to flow would also be very short.
Idea and trial 2:
Since Idea 1 did not work, I switched to using salt instead. Salt is the closest substitute to sand, my original idea, in terms of its physical properties. I did consider using sugar but it would be unsustainable as an installation as it would attract ants. The base would be constructed using a thin sheet of paper which the audience would write one struggle or unhappiness they have and tape it to seal the bottom of the hourglass. Salt was to symbolise literally the phrase “adding salt to your wound”. The deeper meaning behind this act was to show how salt as a representation of time, will definitely cause one to feel pain and hurt in the midst of their suffering but at the end of the day, all these problems would be buried in the flow of time.
There would be a video at the side illustrating edited time where the video is deliberately altered to play at different speeds or video is angled at varying orientations. The duration of the video would be exactly the same as the time taken for the salt to flow down the hourglass in the actual installation to show that even if one tries to alter and seek out more time, time will always remain constant.
However, more problems were encountered during the trial runs. Probably because the salt was not entirely dry, or maybe due to the texture or shape or the salt grains, they were unable to fall through the hole. Might also be due to the shape of the bottle I used, where the sides were not steep enough.
Experimented with other materials but to all to no avail. Perhaps only fine sand would work.
After numerous tries, I decided to change the entire artwork but still keeping the concept. So instead, with the same logic as hourglass used as a measurement of time, I replaced the hourglass with bottles filled with water instead. These were some test runs to determine the water level which will leak out in a stipulated amount of time:
