Christian Marclay’s The Clock @Museum of Fine Arts Boston, On view through Jan 2017 (24hr screening Fri 10/14- Sat 10/15)

In Ben Lerner’s novel 10:04 (2014), the protagonist attempts to arrive at a screening of Christian Marclay’s art installation The Clock (2010) in time for the clip from the film Back to the Future (1985) where Marty is able to return to 1985. This will occur at 10:04 pm in all three realities. But he doesn’t make it. We, the reader, anticipate the protagonist’s arrival at the film for the very reason that we already know the title of Lerner’s text, and therefore know it is important. But when the appointed time is missed, and the character readjusts his expectations and continues to watch the Marclay piece, we are left hanging in our expectation.
This is the brilliance of The Clock. Assembled from thousands of film and television clips where a clock face is visible on screen, each clip corresponds to the viewer’s real time. The resulting experience breaks down the illusion of cinematic escapism and our individual desire to order our experiences of time as a linear trajectory. However, we remain caught in the addictive moment where expectation meets climax, unable to become disentangled from our cultural conditioning.

—Maggie Jensen

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Edward Linde Fund—Jointly owned by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the National Gallery of Canada © the artist
Photo: Todd‑White Art Photography
Courtesy of the artist, White Cube, London and Paula Cooper Gallery, New York *© the artist. Photo: Todd‑White Art Photography. Courtesy White Cube, London and Paula Cooper Gallery, New York.
Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston