100 x 446 (diameter) cm. Neon light, aluminum structure
In Decimal Clock (White and Pink), Carsten Höller’s rationalist instincts turn to the division of time. This functional clock, accounting for 10 hours, 100 minutes and 100 seconds, reminds us that the global homogenization of time occurred only recently as a response to the unprecedented degree of planetary interconnectedness. Decimal Clock (White and Pink) gestures towards experiments with decimal time during the French Revolution and pays tribute to efforts aiming at temporal comparability and regularity. Yet it also acknowledges various non-Western ways of measuring time and, rather than seeing them as a threat to the empire of reason, celebrates them as an expression of the heterogeneity of our existence in time. By pointing to other forms of measuring time, the artwork also calls forth varying types of knowledge, be they occidental, oriental, southern, northern, ancient or modern. It alludes to the co-existence of different ways of thinking, the importance of diversity of thought and the possibilities inherent in knowledge and critical thinking.
