Real Time: Sweepers Clock

Architecture and Design

2010

Maarten Baas
German, born 1978

Laced with dry wit and humor, the Sweepers Clock is arguably the most labor-intensive of Dutch designer Maarten Baas’s 2009 series of timepieces. As the name suggests, the clock features two people with brooms pushing lines of debris in real time to form minute and hour hands. This work draws our attention to how the perception of time is dictated by regularly occurring activities, as well as to the fruitlessness of hard labor.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Architecture and Design

Artist: Maarten Baas
Title: Real Time: Sweepers Clock
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 2010
Medium: Digital Video (Blu-ray format)
Dimensions: N/A
Credit Line: Funds provided by the Architecture & Design Society
Reference Number: 2010.416

The Art Institute of Chicago, “Past Forward: Architecture and Design Collection at the Art Institute,” September 12, 2017–November 4, 2018.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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