Against the run

Alicja Kwade is a German contemporary artist of Polish descent, born on the 26 of February, 1979, in Katowice. She is known for her multidisciplinary work that combines sculpture, installation, video and photography. Kwade’s works of art often explore complex concepts such as time, space, identity and the relationship between humanity and matter.

‘Against the run’ is a clock that gives the correct time but does so in an extremely confusing way. The artist transformed a well-known 19th-century New York clock so that its hands appear to move backward, turning the clock’s — and hence the time’s — mechanism around. In reality it’s the dial that moves, while the hands show the correct time. In this manipulation, Kwade shows us the extent to which we rely on assumptions and expectations in our everyday lives. Kwade’s clock reflects her fascination with the systems we invent to make sense of our lives and the world. She encourages us to see reality from a different perspective.