TIME PIECE

10-21 July 2000

"at five in the afternoon"

METHOD:

I chose spontaneously to make my pieces, make my peace, every day from 10 to 31 July 2000 at "exactly five in the afternoon."  This time occurred to me because of the rhythmic tolling sound in my head for many years of the opening lines of the famous "Llanto por Ignacio Sanchez Mejias" ("Lament for Ignacio Sanchez Mejias") by Federico Garcia Lorca:

A las cinco de tarde

Eran las cinco en punto de la tarde

At five in the afternoon

It was exactly five in the afternoon

The poem recounts and honors the death of a matador.

Sometimes in my pieces here death also makes an appearance.

This conjunction among many which occurred during the project marks the passage of time, as with light, as a flow and also a particle, a particular.  Because of this simultaneous nature, there is "at times" synchronicity--of ideas, images, thoughts, events.

I also thought of the poem by William Carlos Williams with the line "I saw the number five in gold"--seen as it is passing by emblazoned on the side of a fire engine.

"The world as we see it is passing"--Saint Paul

On 10 July 2000 at 6:30 in the evening on my way to a film and Philosophy class I audited during the project, I found several discarded supplies next to the screening room where the class was held.  These had a sign:  please take these for free.

This was indeed in many senses "a sign"--"of things to come" in and with time as among the things I brought home that night was a calendar.  I did not look closely at this until the 12 July, when I noticed the days of the week for July coincided with the correct dates for this year.  Great!  I thought--I can use this for my project.  However, upon using the first one, I noticed that the calendar, though "in synch" by day and date, was "out of time" by year:  it was from 1995!

The original synchonicity seemed "off"--until realizing that 1995 is FIVE YEARS "ahead" of 2000.  "I'm Five Years Ahead of My Time" is a favorite cult classic 1960's Garage/Punk song of mine--by the Third Bardo, later covered by a 1980s group seen/heard in Boston, Plan 9.

Each day I carried the torn page from the calendar for that particular day with me and noted the evens of five o'clock on it--and on days I neglected to do this, carried an index card in my constant companion, my art supply and junk collecting bag.

Finding things is another theme here--Picasso said:  "I don't seek, I find"--and this method I use in my works--found materials from street, books, films photos, music--objects large and small, ephemeral and solid--which I spray paint on to rub off images, words, letters, fragments--or take charcoal and make rubbings from.

The backdrop pages for each "five o'clock appointment" I made with materials directly next to the paper I was going to glue my documentation on thwen I returned home from my wanderings.  The paper was never in the same place from day to day, hence the different materials and colors used.

I did not use any programmatic method other than selecting the time--that way whatever is documented would be open to that moment in time and space, particular among the flow of time.  The flow is indicated by there being as well memories noted, or thoughts of the future noted that occurred at five o'clock in the afternoon.

The spaces vary in actual and virtual space, with the screens of computer, of tv and window participating as well as the radio-acoustic virtuality.

Five o'clock is also "time for the five o'clock news"--

Punctuality as one says--to "make a point of being on time"--

here "being on time" being on time simply for that time.

hence "always on time"--

As the project went on, I began to think of it also as a lit fuse, burning for the selected duration of 21 days.

A three week "time bomb"--

When it "went off"--it went elsewhere--from July to August--from the here of its making to the there of its not yet as I write arrival with Patricia.

To be "in time" with the project--I WILL MAIL IT IN THE FIVE O' CLOCK IN THE AFTERNOON MAIL PICKUP--THERE IS A CLOCK FACING FROM THE BANK ON ONE OF THE FIVE STREETS WHICH INTERSECT BY THE MAIL BOX AND AT EXACTLY FIVE O'CLOCK--THIS WILL BE IN THE MAIL!

--dave baptiste chirot

My greetings and thanks to all others participating for "sharing time together."