Ongoing Time Stabbed with a Dagger

2009 - Installation (Installation)

Geoffrey Farmer

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Ongoing Time Stabbed with a Dagger was Farmer’s first kinetic sculpture that added a cinematic character to an “ever-reconfiguring play presented in real time.” The assembly of various objects and props on top of a large platform constitutes not only a work, but, to a certain extent, a show in itself. The title of the piece comes from the literal translation of René Magritte’s painting from 1938, La Durée Poignardée , whose more familiar translation is “Time Transfixed.”

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Geoffrey Farmer borrows equally from the traditions of installation and conceptual art to create carefully staged works that emphasize temporality and fiction, and examine history, art history, and popular culture. His interest in theatricality is particularly evident in pieces like Theater of Cruelty (2009) and And Finally the Street Becomes the Main Character [Clock] (2008) in which various fragments are assembled into epic narratives. Through these stagings, Farmer critiques modernity’s construction of history, temporality, and fiction.

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Colors:

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• play.n.01
• surrealism.n.01
• time.n.05
• kinetic.a.01
• placement.n.01
• magritte.n.01
• abstract versus figurative art
• canadian
• contemporary conceptualism
• contemporary surrealistic
• narrative
• san francisco art institute alumni