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Maya Lin
Eclipsed Time, 1994
This work by Maya Lin makes art out of time by combining industrial craftsmanship with contemporary technology. Although the materials are the stuff of high technology, the sculpture returns the measuring of time to a pre-industrial concept: the movement of light. Lin remind us that "time is as much a function of nature as a construct of society."
How to Look at Eclipsed Time:
Stand under the clock, facing away from the ticket counters. Above you, you can see a sand-blasted glass disk, with the numbers of the hours (and marks for the quarter-hour) left clear. To your right is the east, to your left, the west. As the aluminum disk passes between the fiber-optic light source and the glass, it eclipses the light and casts a shadow on the glass. The visible edge of the shadow intersects the markings of the hours and quarter hours, giving an approximate reading of the time. From your position, read the time on the set of numbers farthest from you as the disk moves from right to left (east to west), and on the set of numbers nearest to you as the disk moves from left to right (west to east). You may have to stand for a little while to known in which the direction the disk is moving. It takes 48 hours for Eclipsed Time to make a full circuit. At midnight, the glass disk is completely covered; only a thin halo of light on the edges is visible. At noon, the entire glass disk is visible; there is no shadow.
Eclipsed Time is not intended to keep precise chronographic time. Do not set your watch by it.
Maya Lin holds a degree in architecture from Yale University. She gained national recognition for her design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC. She has worked on the Civil Rights Memorial in Alabama, a permanent art installation at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Ohio, and number of architectural commissions and private sculptures. This is her first public sculpture in New York City. |