The Clock - Christian Marclay

This work is a collection of thousands of video clips, from Movies and Television, that show timekeeping. This compilation is cut and edited so that the time shown on the clip shows the actual time accurately. Not only was this a tremendous amount of work for the artist as he had to find the right clip for every second, and every minute, but this work also has value in its creation through other means. It transcends the normal standard ways of timekeeping, both by showing an array of timekeeping devices on screen, but also by including the sound of the clips. The Tate Modern Blog also described the work as a memento mori, a work which reminds us of the time passing, and our own mortality.

Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904)

 Eadweard Muybridge was an English photographer from the second half of the 19^th century whose most famous work 

is in the "photographic studies of motion". Similarly to how Masolino da Panicale (1383-1440) was one of the first to "discover" one-point perspective, Muybridge created a new breakthrough in the more technical spectrum of the art world. His discoveries offered a whole new perspective to the motion of humans, but also animals, whose movements had been wrongly represented for centuries (ex. horses - Sallie Gardner at a Gallop). His work being predominantly about capturing several instances-a-second of the same movement, photography is an obvious choice. His works are still used today for reference in animation and anatomy.

Marina Abramovich (Born 1946)

I've read a lot about marina Abramovich's work and origin story. Considering her difficult beginnings in life, she's managed to reinvent herself, and her outlook on the world of contemporary art world, as a veteran of said world, is extremely interesting.

The Artist is Present - Marina Abramovich & Matthew Akers

This collaboration between these two artists was very striking at the time of its enactment, and it still is today. In this performance, Marina sat for entire days at a desk, whilst the visitors would come, sit down in front of her, and stare. She would not say a word, everything to be said was exchanged between the looks of the spectator and the artist. This was mainly a test of endurance, a sort of meditation, but also a study of our humanity. 

When asked about what was next, this is what she answered:

which I found to be interestingly worded.

60 Minute of Silence - Gillian Wearing

This work by Gillian Wearing, done in 1996, earned her the turner prize of the same year. It is interesting because it deceives the spectator into and initial unease, as one is unsure whether the medium observed is is a photo or a video. Through several minute motions of the humans portrayed, we realize that we are not looking at some simple group photo, but in fact, this is a video featuring actors who stood "relatively" still for 60 seconds

One Hour Circle Painting - Daniel Eatock

(Taken from the artist's own website)

The clock is hung on the gallery wall at head height. 60 different visitors to the gallery are individually given the following instruction: Select one can of spray paint. Spray one complete circle around the perimeter of the clock in an uninterrupted clockwise circular motion following the ticking second hand of the clock as a metronome/guide. Your circle must take 60 seconds to paint, at 15 seconds the circle should be a quarter complete and at 30 seconds the painting should be half way. Start and end at the 12 o’clock position, do not lift your finger off the spray can nozzle until the circle is complete, don’t worry too much if your line overlaps the previous persons line.

Each circle adds to the growing set of concentric rings. The combined set represents a combined painting duration of exactly one hour.

Conclusion

The main tying theme between all these works is the idea of time passing, this is either done through a performance (Abramovic, Wearing) or through a more direct and frontal approach to studying the time passing (Muybridge, Marclay).