My late father once told me, "Time is our most precious commodity," and after attending west coast premiere of Christian Marclay's The Clock, I'm confident he is not alone in this sentiment. Recently acquired by LACMA Trustee Steve Tisch, The Clock comprises twenty-four hours of appropriated film footage depicting the minutes (and sometimes seconds) from clocks, watches, or announcements of time on screen. The magic of this project surrounds the reel/real time sync: when you see a clock on screen, it will match the time on your wristwatch- sometimes down to the second. (Thanks to this, I realized my own watch was running slow.)
Prior to LACMA, Marclay's vision debuted at London's White Cube Gallery and New York's Paula Cooper Gallery. The New York Times proclaimed Marclay's greatness, but also the installation's ability to "horrify movie buffs." Yet, as a amateur cinephile, I can't help but view this collage as an homage to cinema.
The Bing Theater was filled with laughter when suddenly- though Marclay's edits- Woody Allen, Cher, and Hannibal Lecter were watching the curtain rise at the same opera. Other clips included scenes from "Almost Famous", "True Lies", "Rosemary's Baby", "Casino Royale", "Double Indemnity", "Funny Games", "The 39 Steps", "Eyes Wide Shut", and "A Hard Day's Night". In just two of the twenty-four hours, I watched a film starring: Mickey Rourke, Michael Keaton, Warren Beatty, Steve McQueen, Robert Duvall, Joan Crawford, Katherine Hepburn, Jack Nicholson, John Cusack, Robert Redford, Barbra Streisand, and Humphrey Bogart - to name only a few.
HuffPost Arts Blogger, Rebecca Taylor live-tweeted photos from the event. Check out her 12:00am tweet- rumor has it- the best minute of the entire film.
For more information on Christian Marclay and the installation, please contact LACMA at the museum's website, Facebook, or Twitter.
For images from the night's private reception, hosted by Michael Govan, please view our slideshow.