All sorts of timepieces have found their way into my life and work throughout the years — in theater sets, in broadcast environments, in public venues, on shelves, on walls, in my pocket, on my wrist. Clock towers in foreign cities have tracked the eternity of a sleepless night while reminding me how fleeting the waking hours of the next day can be.
Until I started creating this series of timepieces about eight years ago, I’d never paused to consider why these mechanical constructions that tick off the seconds, hours, days and years hold such a powerful interest for me.
It’s not an obsession with mortality and death that has sustained this fascination, though the dark palette of these clocks might suggest it. Rather, I’m interested in exploring the multiple narratives metered by the eternal sweep of the hands, around and around again, never stopping. The clocks are a symbol and measure of our ever evolving stories, archived by time whether we are conscious observers of time or not.
Our personal narratives all come to the same end — an inevitability as of yet unalterable. Are clocks, then, just cruel reminders of the transient nature of life or are they more subtle constructs that remind us to live life now? Depending on the time of day or night, they communicate both.
Each clock in this collection is hand built using found objects, discarded clock cases, old and new clockworks, a variety of metals, glass, paints and shellacs. Objects and details that existed in a different context have been transformed to serve the intent of each piece.
Erik Ulfers
October 12, 2014
Mixed media
12 1/2” h x 9” w x 9” d
Erik Ulfers | 2014
Mixed media
8 1/2” h x 8 1/2” w x 2 1/4” d
Erik Ulfers | 2014
Mixed media
23 1/2” h x 9” w x 9” d
Erik Ulfers | 2014
Mixed media
18 3/4” h x 9” w x 7” d
Erik Ulfers | 2014
Mixed media
12” h x 5 1/2” w x 6 1/4” d
Erik Ulfers | 2014
Mixed media
14 7/8” h x 8 1/4” w x 6 1/2” d
Erik Ulfers | 2014
Mixed media
11” h x 3” w x 2 3/8” d
Erik Ulfers | 2014
Mixed media
12 1/2” h x 9 1/2” w x 9 1/2 d
Erik Ulfers | 2014
Mixed media
19” h x 6 1/2” w x 6” d
Erik Ulfers | 2014
Mixed media
10 3/4” h x 7 1/2” w x 5” d
Erik Ulfers | 2014
Mixed media
12 3/4” h x 5 1/8” w x 5 1/8” d
Erik Ulfers | 2014
Mixed media
10” h x 5” w x 12 7/8” d
Erik Ulfers | 2014
Mixed media
7” h x 4 3/4” w x 4 3/4” d
Erik Ulfers | 2014
Mixed media
13” h x 11” w x 11” d
Erik Ulfers | 2014
Mixed media
13” h x 9” w x 9” d
Erik Ulfers | 2014
Mixed media
11”h x 8 1/2”w x 3 1/4”d
Erik Ulfers | 2014
Mixed media
15 3/8” h x 12” w x 9 7/8” d
Erik Ulfers | 2014
Mixed media
20” h x 11 1/4” w x 11 1/4” d
Erik Ulfers | 2014
Mixed media
20 1/4” h x 13 1/2” w x 6” d
Erik Ulfers | 2014
Mixed media
15 1/8” h x 7” w x 3 3/4” d
Erik Ulfers | 2014
Mixed media
12 3/4” h x 8 1/4” w x 8 1/4” d
Erik Ulfers | 2014
Mixed media
8’’h X 4 1/2”w X 41/2”d
Erik Ulfers | 2014
Mixed media
11” h x 24” w x 3 5/8” d
Erik Ulfers | 2014