Maarten Baas: Sweepers Clock

Sweepers Clock is a synthesis of performance, visual art, film, and design that depicts two street cleaners with brooms sweeping lines of debris in order to simulate moving clock hands. The simplistic, yet tasking endeavor of physically sweeping the clock hands every minute parallels the myth of Sisyphus—the figure of Greek mythology condemned to forever repeat the same task of pushing a boulder up a mountain, only to see it roll down again. In a poetic expression of time, Baas’ clock allows for… Show more human error and inaccuracy—similar to our own analog clocks and watches. The sweepers individually move each line each minute as the hands of the clock, and the video documentation is screened in a true interval of twelve hours. By animating the clock using real performers to indicate the passing of time, both elements of monotony and time inaccuracy are expressed.

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