Nel Verbeke
The sound of time, 2017
burned wood, ashed ash wood, copper
70 x 43 x 10,3 cm
8 + 2 AP
An hourglass is balanced in an elegant holder, delicately counterweighted by a copper ball and mounted on a blackened, wooden base. The form of the hourglass consists of two conoidal components joined at their narrowest points. Their opaque manifestation makes them enigmatic, almost mysterious.
It is within the act that the hourglass reveals its secret. As it is turned over, inner material travels from top to bottom, generating a sound: the sound of time.
When considered as an instrument, the object deconstructs time and its usual metre, allowing us moments of contemplation and introspection, detached from utility or pragmatism.
This is time absorbed in itself - the time of time - pronounced only by its own sound.
A thought, further radicalised by creating an hourglass in the same materials as its own moving contents.
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