09/03/2023, 00:14 Gabriel Lester — The Clock & the Clockwork – 2003

Gabriel Lester

The Clock & the Clockwork - 2003

MDF, wood, neon, metal bar, glass, furniture, props

Exhibited at: Galerie Fons Welters, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Clock and Clockwork was conceived at a time when the world was about to wage war on Iraq.
While most of us can read the time, we have very little idea about the mechanisms of traditional
clockworks. Most people seemed to understand what was going on in Iraq at the time, and even
had a vague notion of why, but very few understood the actual mechanisms and powers at play.
With this in mind, the notion of a hidden world, an obscure and enigmatic apparatus beyond our
view and control, started to take shape. The result was an installation that, at first, looked like an
ordinary waiting room, a place where one could recognize and imagine having been there or
might still visit one day. Hidden under the desk of the gallery holder was a switch. When
pressed, the back wall of the waiting room would slowly open and a second part of the
installation would become accessible. Behind the suspenseful revolving wall, a large room
resembling both a laboratory and a labyrinth appeared. This space exuded a sterile sense of
revulsion, and proposed the idea of a puzzling, bizarre mechanism.

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