Year: 2024
Medium: found clock
Dimensions: 27 cm in diameter x 7d cm (10 3/8 in. in diameter x 2 3/4d in.)
Acquired from Pace Gallery, 2025
Clocks have typically displayed the flow of time in a clockwise direction, a norm derived from sundials using shadows to track the movement of the sun. The title of this work in German refers to “going in the opposite direction.” Here, it is certain to refer to movement in the opposite direction to clockwise. The second hand appears to be broken, yet it is in fact moving correctly. It is just that the body of the clock is itself moving in reverse. For each second that the second hand progresses forward, the clock itself rotates in the opposite direction. causing the second hand to continue to point straight upward. Although it may not appear that way because of its irregular movement, this clock does show the correct time. While negating this essential property of a clock—its clockwise rotation—the work continues to fulfil the original function as a device for indicating time. Kwade’s subtle intervention reveals a new aspect of reality that often goes unnoticed. We take clocks for granted to tell the time, assuming that time is accurate and believing that clocks depend upon that accuracy. They may sometimes run slowly or stop, but this is tolerated as within an acceptable margin of error. However, when confronted with the impossible behavior of a clock that deviates from that tolerable margin, we are robbed of the time we should have been able to tell. The “rightness” of time that we had believed in fundamentally collapses all too easily.
