How to Represent Time in Art?
*Every work of art is a timepiece.
In his essay “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” Walter Benjamin mentions that the authenticity of a work of art lies in its immediacy—its presence in time and space, at the moment of its creation and in the place of its emergence. It is the uniqueness of these two aspects, inseparable from each other, that constitutes the history of the artwork, thereby determining its intrinsic value.
What is Time-Based Art?
According to the definition provided by the Guggenheim Museum in New York, Time-Based Media Art includes “contemporary art practices that are rooted in film, video, slide, audio, and computer-based technologies, treating time as a dimension of the artwork and often inviting the viewer to engage with the unfolding of the piece over time.(quotes from miam)”
The Introduction of Time: Changing the Human Perception
If traditional art is static, time-based art is dynamic. While traditional art expresses itself unilaterally, time-based art involves a two-way communication process.
Audiences need to invest time in a time-based artwork, whether it’s watching a video, completing an event, or participating in an activity. During this shared time, the experiences of light, sound, space, events, and activities influence how an individual understands the artwork. Therefore, a time-based artist must plan and control these elements—time, light, sound, space, events, and activities.
Time-based new media falls under the umbrella of new media art. However, time-based art doesn’t necessarily involve electronics or technology. For example, German artist Nele Azevedo created a piece titled “Melting Man” using ice sculptures on the streets of Berlin.
Performance artist Tehching Hsieh’s year-long performance art piece, “One Year Performance 1980–1981 (Time Clock Piece),” is another example.
On Kawara’s entire body of work, particularly the famous painting series “Today” (1966-2013), where he created a daily painting for 47 years, is a significant exploration of time. The Guggenheim Museum held a retrospective exhibition in 2015 titled “Silence” – On Kawara—Silence(sources from miam.org).
Marcel Duchamp’s 1912 work, “Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2,” marked his transition from Futurist painting (his last painting).
American artist Lucy McKenzie’s 1998 oil painting “OLGA KORBUT,” depicting the Belarusian gymnast Olga Korbut.
Christian Marclay’s time-based media artwork, the film “The Clock,” completed in 2010. In art, there’s no single definition of time. Time is intricately linked to topics like life, growth, memory, eternity, the unknown, history, change, and more. Artists from different fields and experiences understand and perceive time differently. They express time based on their materials, familiar mediums, and dimensions of thought. This discussion provided examples from various mediums, including installations, paintings, films, and photography. Time, for artists, serves both as a means of expression and a thematic focus. Time-based art incorporates the passage of time and viewer participation into the creative dimension, creating a four-dimensional, bidirectional, fluid art form. The study of time-related themes in contemporary art is extensive, covering various directions such as time and personal memory, time and public history, time and death, time and technology, time and space, time and the subconscious, time and imagination, and more.
