Hallgrimskirkja (Hallgrims Church)
Reykjavik, Iceland
Photographic Duraclears in four clock tower window
9' diameter clockfaces
For the Hallgrimskirkja’s (Hallgrim’s Church) site project entitled “Beating Time,” Duraclear photographic transparencies were adhered to the four translucent clock faces in the church’s bell tower. The 9-ft diameter clocks align with the four cardinal directions on the compass (North South East and West). In the central section of the glass clock faces, a connected series of photographs taken on Iceland’s Outer Ring Road depict a hand holding quotidian objects such as wires and glass shards which suggest physical and metaphoric alignments with the sun and surrounding landscape.
The images selected for the segmented window sections surrounding each clock’s core pay homage to historic images of late 19th century photographer Eadward Muybridge’s sequential action photographs of a conductor’s hands (also entitled “Beating Time”) and the evangelical basis of Hallgrimskirkja Lutheran doctrine. Lending a contemporary and tangible component to the work is the incorporation of photographed hands of the reverends and musical conductor of the church arranged to simulate “conducting” of the church’s most well-known hymn written by its founder, Hallgrimur Peturssón.
