Tall Clock c. 1937

Curator: I’m immediately struck by the solitude and silence of this watercolor drawing. It is almost as though the ticking has stopped, freezing the clock in time. Editor: Indeed. What you're observing is "Tall Clock" rendered around 1937 by Frank Wenger, using watercolor to meticulously depict this piece of furniture. It offers a glimpse into the domestic spaces and design sensibilities of that era, doesn't it? We can ponder what timepieces meant in a society facing both economic hardship and technological advancement. Curator: The clock's ornate design clashes somewhat with what I understand about the aesthetic tendencies of the period. One thinks of a streamlining of art deco rather than the old world carvings. Editor: You touch on an important point! It seems like Wenger may be engaging with notions of historical continuity and nostalgia through this visual representation, perhaps in response to social and economic change. The "Tall Clock" could function as a symbolic anchor to an idealized, romanticized past during the anxieties of the pre-war years. Curator: Or perhaps Wenger is trying to comment on notions of domesticity? Tall clocks being fixtures of particular kinds of houses and social mores, and of particular times, not dissimilar to Foucault's work on Bentham's Panopticon, are clocks perhaps devices by which to impose discipline? The watercolor itself feels more fragile than what I would assume such clocks to be; the watercolor destabilizes its very nature! Editor: That's compelling. We should also remember the economic realities during the 1930s. Could a clock like this be a symbol of luxury accessible only to some? Or conversely, perhaps a yearning for such comforts during difficult times, especially in relationship to ideas about leisure? It forces a debate around power dynamics manifested within everyday objects. Curator: It really provokes a lot of questions. From ideas surrounding the anxieties about labor under regimes of capital, to notions about stability through design, "Tall Clock" provides food for thought regarding time and history! Editor: Yes, a deceivingly simple work prompting multilayered conversations. This drawing illustrates so well the profound relationship between ordinary objects, power, and memory.