Encouraging forward-thinking around the clock

STORY BY VANESSA GILLIS

The intent of the giant digital clock above Trafalgar Campus’ B-Wing is for you to ask yourself: Where will you be in 24 hours?

“The clock points to the idea of tomorrow in a hopeful and optimistic way,” said Jon Sasaki, the artist behind the installation A Clock Set 24 Hours Into the Future.

“The title of this work is intended to promote speculation about the nature of time and our sense of our place within the continuum of time,” said Ronni Rosenberg, dean of the Faculty of Animation, Arts and Design. “This work also presents the conundrum of how one could know or prove that the time shown is past, present or future.”

The college commissioned the clock as part of the Campus Enhancement Group’s Temporary Contemporary initiative, which is meant to bring interesting and challenging art to Sheridan.

Temporary Contemporary was launched in 2012 and is now an annual temporary installation of a contemporary artwork.

It is meant as a “call to the wider arts community to install a work at Sheridan, and a way for our Sheridan community to build bridges to the wider artists’ community,” said Rosenberg. “We want this piece to engage positively with our neighbours.”

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For this initiative, artists are called to submit proposals for art pieces at specific points around Trafalgar Campus.

A jury then selects one of the submissions to be displayed, and the artist is awarded $7,000 to cover having their work displayed and an additional $1,000 for transportation, installation and insurance.

Of the more than 30 artists who replied this year, Rosenberg said Sasaki’s piece was chosen almost unanimously.

“It has resonance in our collective memory as a public clock tower,” said Rosenberg. “But its oversized, glowing digits create a more strangely sci-fi version. This question of context starts to toy with us.

“It is also a great element for community engagement because of the questions it raises as a looming spectre.”

Sasaki, who has a BFA from Mount Allison University in New Brunswick, lives in Toronto and has had his work featured in galleries across Canada and as far away as Japan and Australia.

He said he first heard about the commission a few years ago and was eager to get involved.

“It is a very interesting campus that lends itself so well to public art,” said the 41-year-old artist. “I liked the idea of introducing this very traditional architecture feature that would symbolically connect it to much older institutions. It references tradition in a slightly nostalgic way.”

Sasaki said he chose the clock because, in the past, clock towers were a landmark for social exchange. Although the purpose can now be served by smartphones, there is an “element of obsolescence to the gesture.”

This is the third installment from Temporary Contemporary. The first, Endless Kiosk, was created by Derek Sullivan and installed in the Learning Commons in August 2012.

The second installation, Doppelkopf 2013 by Roula Partheniou, was also displayed in the Learning Commons in September 2013.

Since its arrival Nov. 5, there has been some mystery surrounding this year’s installation, as not many people seem to know much about it. Hopefully that will change Nov. 25 when a didactic panel will be installed, Rosenberg said

“It’s not part of a mystery reveal or anything,” laughed Rosenberg. “The delay is simply due to [the artist’s] own fabricator’s schedule.”

Sasaki will be at Sheridan on Nov. 25 to speak about his work.