ELIZABETH ALEXANDER

1 o’clock… 2 o’clock… 3 o’clock… 4, a two-part installation comprised of positive and negative elements from dissected rolls of wallpaper separated to form a 56' wall and coat a series of paper objects suspended like a chandelier. Emanating from the 'well' (circle platform) is a sound collage by Todd Bowser.

The title comes from a game my grandmother taught me using seeded dandelions. We would blow the seeds off to tell time, blow “1 o’clock”, blow 2 o’clock… and so on. Blowing on dandelions, finding four leaf clovers, dropping coins in a well, buying lottery tickets, picking up pennies, etc. function as superstitious rituals to meditate on a better life. Magical thinking through wishing serves as a coping mechanism to handle disappointments with current circumstances, be it wishing things could be better, easier, etc., or rewriting the past, wishing it were different. Wishing can be as toxic as it is hopeful. It can serve as a way to ignore reality and enable inaction. Compulsive wishing can also contribute to a script for those in power to manipulate and create false hopes and lure favor through myth, “persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic”. 1 o’clock… 2 o’clock… 3 o’clock… 4 is also watching the passage of time, passively waiting for things to change

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