63 MINUTE SLIDESHOW

63 minute sound and slide projector installation work at Western Front.

10 February 1983

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In this installation work, two slide projectors each contain a reel of slides: one a series of images of a clock face, with one hand advancing in minute increments; the other a series of images showing a ‘putto’ (small child, or cherub) statue in a garden, itself rotating incrementally on the spot. The synchronised slideshow was accompanied by re-recorded audio of a text – ‘Alone’.

‘The work was simply about 63 positions in time and space, visible and audible and non-visible. The idea derived form MacLennan’s practice with the I Ching. 63 is the penultimate hexagram. In the I Ching change and ‘coincidence’ are given a more prominent role in existence and knowledge than our culture would habitually allow. In it, also, the concept of ‘presence’ as the intersection of past and future is thought through. Another idea, which acts as a cohesive force for those mentioned, is that of a range of influences on our lives, replacing the more habitual concept of cause and effect.’

Text from ‘Alastair MacLennan: Is No’, ed. Stephen Snoddy, 1988.