Marking Time

'Marking time', 2008, mixed media, (size variable)

A serious illness in 2007 forced me to re-evaluate my life.  Having effectively ‘lost’ several weeks, I became interested in how the passing of time could be recorded. Not as a series of events but as the slow, painstaking mounting of minute upon minute.  How could I ‘prove’ my existence? Marking Time (2008) was my attempt to capture such minutes.  The beaded chain is part performance, part visual diary.  A length was added to it each day from early January 2008 until its exhibition a few months later.  Initially, there was no record of an actual date, only the joining threads acted as markers for each day.   Influenced by On Kawara’s date paintings, I set parameters or rules for the production of the work.  Each section was produced from one arms length of thread using a particular mix of beads and a date label was attached at the end of the days weaving.

'Marking time', 2008, detail