Image Credit: Jules Lister
Photographed at Grundy Gallery, UK, for ‘object transformations through the coordinate of time’, 2024, RA Walden
Beeswax candles, hand forged pewter nails
This work has been made by the artist, RA Walden in collaboration with the artist Cooper Lovano.
The work takes inspiration from an ancient time-keeping device known as a ‘candle clock’, where nails inserted into candles would fall out at pre-determined intervals as the candle burned down, making a noise and alerting the sleeper.
Installed in a straight line along the gallery floor, this presentation of the work refers to ‘linear time’, a concept where time is described as moving forward from past to future in a continuous manner. This is in opposition to the theory of non-linear time, which challenges our conventional understanding by suggesting that everything is connected and is happening at the same time.
These nails form part of the beeswax candle installation found on the floor of Gallery 2, but they have also been nailed at various positions into the gallery walls.
Each head of each nail has been decorated with elements from the equations referred to in the illuminated clock series ‘the universe is a clock’. In doing so the nails become linked into the conversation running throughout this exhibition, about how time is measured, recorded, perceived and valued.
Illuminated by the lights of the gallery, these nails cast their own shadows onto the walls in various directions and in doing so resemble another ancient time-measuring device, the sun-dial.
Text by Paulette Brien