A Man Paints Minutes of a Clock by Hand

A clock has been put up at the Amsterdam Airport in which a man can be seen painting the minutes by hand. Watch our latest video to learn more about this unique art piece.

A clock has been put up at the Amsterdam Airport in which a man can be seen painting the minutes by hand. 

This clock is made by a Dutch designer Maarten Baas and is from his Real Time series. The series has more such clocks. The clock has been installed at the newly renovated Lounge 2 at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport. The Real Time series was first launched at the Milan Furniture Fair in 2009. It included the “Sweepers,” in which two handymen sweep trash into a clock for 12 hours. “Analog Digital,” in which a man paints the digits on a standard digital clock; 

“Grandfather Clocks,” in which there is a video of a man drawing the hands of a clock from the inside of the clock face. Since then, Baas created the new "Schiphol Clock" in which there is a video of a man in a uniform behind the translucent clock face carefully painting the time minute by minute continuously. Baas said in a press release, “’Real time’ is a word that is used in the film industry. It means that the duration of a scene portrays exactly the same time as it took to shoot it. I use the concept in my Real-Time clocks by showing videos where the hands of time are literally moved in real-time. The real-time videos take 12 hours to shoot and 12 hours to watch from start to finish.”  In the project description, it was said that Baas was inspired by “the many faceless men who sweep, clean and work at an airport in their blue overalls.” 

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