Millennium Calendar
A work for the Material Support Exhibition at the Visual Arts Centre of Clarington, 2000.
The piece dealt with elements of time including a mark for every day of the millennium from 1,000 to 2,000 A.D.
Like the exhibition title suggests Material Support encouraged the artists to look to local industry for support with regards to the materials needed to complete the installations. The other artists in the exhibition included Jane Eccles, Ron Eccles and Heather Rigby.
Aluminum, ink and clock, 10' x 15', 2000
"Millennium calendar offers viewers an opportunity to ponder the actuality of time. A thousand years of days are crossed off, on a fifteen- foot wall sheet in aluminum. Adjacent to the piece is an industrial-style clock, marking the passing of minutes and hours. By establishing a system that will produce 365,000 markings, the artist leads viewers to perceive both the magnitude and the insignificance of 1000 years, day by day. As in his earlier work he has used a grinder to "draw" on the surface, crossing off each year with an "X" so that the texture is altered, the entire work becoming a field of shiny X's over black hatchmarks. As the artist performs the experience of counting, he defines the immensity of the number and thereby creates a frame of reference for remembering and experiencing. He invites us to participate by contemplating historical time lines, placing momentous events within the continuum. Accompanying the work is the relentless ticking of the clock. Time continuing to pass, its boundaries revealed as artificial the millennium a relatively contrived milestone."
Margaret Rodgers, VAC Curator, from the Material Support catalogue.
As this exhibition began in the first month of the year 2,000 the last year of the millennium was just getting started so marks were added for each day of the exhibition.
Standing before Millennium Calendar has the power to remind us how short our earthly visit really is and to make sure we make our time here count.
The days are counted off like a jail house calendar 1-2-3-4 then a diagonal line marking the fifth day. Each square in the grid has 365 days and then the year is "X'ed" using a grinder.
*While doing a presentation about time to gifted students the artist was reminded to add 250 marks for the leap years.