If I Could Turn Back Time: Wrong Way Clocks

Potentially the highlight of the Wrong Way Time exhibition (more details about the exhibition here) was the section devoted to the physical manifestation of calculating the hours, minutes and seconds, in Wrong Way Clocks.

The clocks have a specific meaning and function within our culture, yet all of them have been altered. By adding text and images in paint, the artist adds to our understanding of what a clock is and what it does. Fiona Hall's clocks become more than just a means to tell the time; they have been transformed into a warning. 

0 is the number

The cheerful cuckoo clock becomes a desperate plea to wake up and look at the world in which we live, its always-expected chimes a reminder that time is precious and finite.

Each of the floor and wall clocks is painted in a different way, but many of them are characterised by skeletons; messages and graffiti cover other pieces. The message is not entirely an omen of death, but memorial totems and protests signs urge people to change their habits and lifestyles. 

A clock face mounted on a tower of charred books indicates that we can learn form the past to arrest the extinction of the future. Time may be running out, but the Doomsday Clock hasn't yet reached Zero Hour and we may still be able to do something about that.

Friday Five COVID-19: More ISO TV

We're coming out of lockdown today - hurrah! While we will be cautiously allowed out to pubs, cafes and restaurants; theatres and cinemas are not operating at capacity so there will be more TV watched for visual input. Meanwhile, these programs have been on my recent watched list. 

1. Atlantic Crossing (SBS On Demand) - A Norwegian/ American drama miniseries addresses the issue of trying to get Allied support for Norway against the Nazis, who had invaded their country in WWII. Allied intervention was not assured, as the forces were busy on multiple fronts, so while the King of Norway and the Crown Prince Olav were in England, trying to drum up European support, Crown Princess Martha took her children to the U.S.A., where she becomes the guest of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. because this is a drama, the script implies there may be more than friendship between these characters. Production values are sleek, design and costumes are exquisite, and the acting varies from subtle and inscrutable to histrionic. Soapy romance elements aside, the politics is fascinating to view from a different historical perspective.  
2. The Head (SBS On Demand) - This Spanish-made, English-language psychological thriller ticks all my boxes; set in a snowy, cold location (The South Pole), a group is left in isolation as the Winterers remain at Polaris VI Antarctic Research Station to continue their research to assist in the fight against climate change. Immediately cracks begin to appear. Fast forward to six months later when the summer team return to find all the Winterers are dead or missing and there is a killer on the loose. Flashbacks indicate that everyone was shifty with a metaphorical axe to grind or a point to prove. It is logical, but I didn't work it out until the very end. It's like Agatha Christie on ice.



3. Time (BBC First) - All praise the new three-part drama miniseries by Jimmy McGovern set in a prison, starring Stephen Graham, Sean Bean, Sue Johnston and Siobhan Finnernan. It's exactly as cheery as one would expect, but the acting and the writing is almost criminally good.
4. Wentworth, Season 5 (ABC iview) - I'm a long way behind with this series - Season  5 finished in 2017, and Season 8 is halfway through (with filming interrupted due to COVID). It chucks in every prison cliché - don't go in the showers; get on gardening detail if you can; beware the butch lesbian; the kitchen deals drugs; most of the screws are bent, but it is one of few mainstream TV dramas that passes the Bechdel Test.



5. War of the Worlds, Seasons 1 & 2 (SBS On Demand) - There are a lot of versions of this story. According to this one (produced by Fox Networks Group and StudioCanal-backed Urban Myth Films), if you send Nick Cave songs out into the cosmos, you might get invaded by aliens from the future. "I don't believe in an interventionist God" has never seemed so apt. The bleak and deserted landscapes are reminiscent of 28 Days Later or The Day of the Triffids, but Gabriel Byrne lends it a touch of gravitas, and the blend of English and French gives it a certain je ne sais quoi. 

Time flies...

The other day I was ‘working hard’ in the office when my colleague asked me if I had my mobile phone on me.

Well, it wasn’t on me because I was wearing a pocket-less outfit, so I went out the back to my handbag and rummaged around through all of the shap (combination word because I don’t think I’m allowed to put either of them individually in print) that breeds in there to spill out at embarrassing moments, and found my phone, which I then presented to said colleague expecting her to use it to send a text or do something radical like make a phone call.

She looked at it and then went to set the clock on the wall to the correct time. Actually, it was one (or possibly thirteen depending on which way you look at it) hours out because I haven’t altered it since I got back from England about a year ago.

I don’t need my phone to mark off the hours until wine o’clock, because I wear (cue gasp of incredulity from anyone under thirty) a watch! Yes, on my wrist. It has clever little hands – a big one for minutes, a little one for hours and a skinny one for seconds, and through this archaic analogue device I am able to tell the time.

Apparently very few people do these days. According to a newspaper article (so it must be true) 28% of people surveyed don’t even own a watch. Have you tried to buy a new watch-strap at the jewellers recently? It’s not easy. When I found a watch-repair outlet that sold leather watch straps I was mightily pleased – life is full of special moments.

When I asked if they were calf leather, the chap told me that they were, so I was a little nonplussed when I looked at the back to find it printed ‘genuine lizard’. Next time I need to purchase one, I probably shouldn’t be surprised to find the words ‘genuine dinosaur’.