In Alicja Kwade’s sculptural practice, clocks signal not just the movement of time but of organizational systems humans put in place to make sense of the world around us. Kwade’s 2015-16 installation in Central Park involved a 16’ tall functional clock with a rotating face, and past work on paper employed scatterings of clock hands affixed to paper to record the amount of rainfall over time during a storm. The artist’s current show at Pace Gallery again incorporates clocks, this time suspended in reflective stainless-steel cylinders and signaling cyclical movement and change. Nodding to Aristotle’s theory of causes in the exhibition title, ‘Telos Tales,’ Kwade adopts the Greek philosopher’s explanation of change in terms of its causes asking with this piece, ‘Causa Efficiens’ where change comes from. (On view in Chelsea through Aug 15th).
