Ali Kazma - Clock Master
Ali Kazma - Clock Master
Ali Kazma
Temporality occupies a pivotal position in my work. I am very interested in the passing of things.
Maybe by talking about Clock Master, I can be more clear. In Clock Master I enjoy the multiple ways
the issue of temporality is approached - time as change, as decay versus the constant struggle of man
to possess and control it; by intellectualizing, systemizing, form-giving, caring, etc. Ultimately of
course, it is a lost cause. In the case of the video Clock Master, we see a man working to fix a
representation of time, a clock, on and through which time has passed.
Ali Kazma in conversation with Mo Gourmelon, 2010.
In “Clock Master”, we see the orchestration of many crafts—like a musical piece written for a large
orchestra. As the use of small crafts gradually add up to each other, we can feel that what the clock
master is dealing with is something vital and critical. It’s a vital function risen from within the modern
era, which needs to govern time. This man, whom we watch with admiration, restores this basic tool
that synchronizes society, reinstating its original, flawless condition to show time with perfect
accuracy. What’s common to both the man who made that watch back in time, in another part of the
world and the man fixing it now is that they speak the language of these small crafts and of this
peculiar orchestration.
[Cevdet Erek, from a conversation with the artist, 2015.]
