Time travels through design and art

Hirst uses dials of Panerai watches to create paintings with shining bright color blocks and stripes to form the shape of a sunflower.

This exhibition is not only about the history of dials, watches and clocks. Curators Silvana Annicchiarico and Jan von Rossem wrote the concept of the exhibition as:

"O'clock thinks deeply about the relationship between time and design. But it is not an exhibition with a historical approach. It does not seek to document the history of timekeeping diachronically, nor the relationship that the masters of design have had, over time, with the instruments, from calendars to clocks, used for measuring time."

Laura Bethan Woods' works are good examples. She has created a series of teacups, named Stain.

The printed patterns on the teacups become more obvious, if these teacups are used more frequently. They will become a finished pattern of birds, flowers, or regular hexagons, after they are used for a long time. In this way, these products combine the beauty of a visible image and invisible time.

Artists Noa Ikeuchi and Tommaso Nani share the same idea. Their art piece is named Seed, featuring a small white broken porcelain plate with a very delicate seed in the center. They say seeds may be able to break the plate, but it takes a long time for them to grow.

The exhibition itself plays with the concept of "time". It has an optional "fast track" entrance, which takes inspiration from the airport. In the airport, if a person has the privilege to use "fast lane", he or she can save time.

But, if a visitor uses "fast track" entrance in this exhibition, he or she can only see a rapid summary, or a small part, of the exhibition. It tries to convey the idea that in this fast-paced modern society, people often choose to fast track to save time, but neglect the more beautiful things in life.

gantian@chinadaily.com.cn