Maarten Baas Mantel Clock Clay Confetti

Confetti Clock by Maarten Baas symbolises time as a continuous celebration, with a film depicting a hedonistic scene filled with pleasure and entertainment. While endless streams of confetti are strewn, a stricter character persistently sweeps it up to keep time readable. The work also references a lyric from The Beatles, “Eleanor Rigby, picks up the rice where a wedding has been,” portraying someone dutifully cleaning the remnants of someone else’s party and seeking to organise them into something meaningful. Extra confetti falls every hour, at 11 minutes past the hour, with the number 11 symbolising the start of Carnival in certain European countries. This work is part of Baas’ Real Time series, which consists of filmed performances exploring the theme of time, which are screened on sculptures designed to resemble clocks.