The starting point here is the relation between writing and time,
object and text, hence the title “Schreibtischuhr” (writing desk clock).
We are considering the time of the written as a point of origin and
analysis, rather than the duration of the spoken. e desk stands for
the common starting point of both the artist and

their critical double when considering the concept image/reads/text. e time of the
desk that begins and ends in silence and is a place of reading and/or
writing. A place for the production of scenarios and a site of critical
writing, correspondence and thought placed into written form. Works
in the exhibition are “on and of” philosophy. Forcing a material to
speak, as a more productive way to go beyond image and caption. Text
as a point of departure and return – an alert and a series of reections
at the same time.
A series of precisely selected desks from various moments in the
modern period are displayed in the gallery. e surrounding critical
context of the exhibition is a series of works by artists who take
dierent approaches to questions of time, scenario production,
identity, and withdrawal – both undermining and accentuating the
themes under examination here.
Liam Gillick and John Rajchman, New York, 2017