At the Time When

225 × 300 mm, 52 pages each, 60 Editions
First Published in July 2024
Printed in Germany

Artist’s Book, Artistic Research, Photography

At the Time When is a three-segment work of artists' books. It divides the time of a day into three periods, each represented by a volume:

Volume I: When the Sun Is Above
Volume II: When Shadows Point East
Volume III: When the Night Bells Ring

The artists' book At the Time When employs a three-part structure, exploring the concept of time by its measurement. Time was once a fluid concept; we relied on sun, shadows, or combustion for communicating time. Mechanical clocks synchronised and homogenised our time. The clock, Karl Marx argued, was the first automatic tool introducing “regular motion”, reshaping timekeeping, industrialised production, and our daily patterns.

We investigate two archives—the German Clock Museum and the Baden State Museum in Southwest Germany—for their clock-making history. In the Black Forest, a clockmaking tradition began in the mid-17th century. Thousands of timekeeping machines are now stored in the clock museum, showing different times at the same moment. For instance, one clock freezes at 8:10, another at 4:00. We respond to these timepieces at these specific times during our trip to the Black Forest in June, in the longest days of the year.

The artifacts and images in this work come from different pasts, yet record the same time. By connecting these ideas of time, the work examines our “temporal” and “eternal” relationships with time.

Concept Wai Lun Hsu, Lai Ping So
Research and Text Wai Lun Hsu, Lai Ping So
Photography Wai Lun Hsu, Lai Ping So
Illustrations    Lai Ping So
Salt Prints Wai Lun Hsu
Printing    PPP Pre Print Partner GmbH & CO. KG, Köln
Design and Bookbinding Wai Lun Hsu, Lai Ping So
Publisher    mmmmor studio, Düsseldorf

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