Design for a Clock n.d.

Editor: This is Simon Schijnvoet’s “Design for a Clock,” made with ink, watercolor, and graphite on paper. The urn shape feels very traditional, almost like something you’d see in ancient Greece. What’s striking to me, though, is the inscription that's a series of numbers above the cherubs, maybe Roman numerals. How do you interpret this work? Curator: The symbolic weight of classical motifs repurposed to measure time is fascinating. This vase form, adorned with playful cherubs, represents not only timelessness, a classical idea, but time itself. Consider the hourglass—an object embodying the fleeting nature of existence—rendered here as a vessel, a container. What memories or cultural associations does an urn conjure? Editor: Definitely thoughts of memorial, like holding the ashes of someone. Curator: Precisely. The artist invites us to reflect on time's passage as both a marker of life and an inevitable journey towards the final containing space of death. Time is often symbolized as a river, its continuous and unidirectional flow bearing us onward. What, then, do you make of cherubs lounging along the top? Are they in the stream or above it? Editor: Hmm. They seem outside of it, like they're unaffected by the passage of time. Curator: Exactly! The image juxtaposes the mortality-focused form of the urn and ticking clock with cherubs, timeless and eternally youthful figures, creating an arresting meditation on mortality versus immortality. Considering those dual aspects, would this influence clock design, and why? Editor: Yes, now I see the full weight. It is much more than an aesthetic choice; it is a reflection of life and death. I wouldn't have appreciated this level of symbolic significance without this interpretation. Curator: That tension makes this design strangely captivating and invites you to contemplate existence itself with every glance at the time.