Half Clock

Half Clock consists of three interlocking semispherical elements, each representing a different unit of time. The outer part represents seconds, the central one indicates minutes, and the inner one shows the count of hours. Instead of hands, certain axes of the clock’s course are represented by neon tubes. Their allocation follows the logic of angular bisectors, wherein the largest undivided area that forms the lower, imaginary half of the sphere is 180 degrees, the subsequent one 90 degrees, then 45 degrees, 22.5 degrees, 11.25 degrees, 5.625 degrees, and finally, 2.8125 degrees.

Transferred onto the face of an analog clock, these bisectors function as hands, which are represented, and thus made visible, only at the seven fixed degree points. When time coincides with the position of one of the neon tubes, it turns on for the particular second, minute, or hour based on the equation. The second hand lights up for only one second, the minute hand for a minute, and the hour hand for one full hour. Thus, if the time is 9 hours 14 minutes and 15 seconds, all three half-spheres light up at the respective representative bisectors. If the time is 16 hours 20 minutes and 30 seconds, none of the three half-globes are lit.

Half Clock thus shows two ways of representing time simultaneously but in hierarchical order, with the usual 60-digit foundation being supplanted by a new way of dividing time units along the 360 degrees of a circle.

Commissioned by Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary for the exhibition “Carsten Höller – LEBEN” at TBA21–Augarten, Vienna, July 11, 2014–January 4, 2015, curated by Daniela Zyman.