The Duration of the Present

The duration of the present is a work to be installed in a room corner. The left part of the work shows a painted half clock face which, instead of numbers, has moon phases on it. The right part is a mirrored panel of the same size. The mirror completes the half clock face to a full circle with a full moon cycle on it. The clock has a second hand which ticks 3 seconds – from 58 to 59 to 60 (12 o’clock) and touches the mirror before it goes back to 58 in a quick sole movement.

Experiments have found that the time we experience as the present is 3 seconds long. Everything longer is already in the past or still in the future to come. The clock (like of course every other clock) is trapped in the present. We can see its past, the painted half clock face, but the hand can never reach the future, as it can’t go beyond the 12 and enter the mirror.