Anna Stuart 

A multi layered and experiential phenomenon, time can be seen as being a relatively underexplored medium in the history of art. Confined to the linear and rational measurement of the clock, it is a subject which has been defined using numbers and in turn, provided man with a triumphant yet worryingly one-dimensional understanding. From the absolute and linear model provided by Newton to more recent theories, time has formed and reformed. A word which infiltrates our lives and vocabulary on an incessant basis, ‘time’ cannot be precisely defined, making it clear that if we know anything for certain about this seemingly familiar phenomenon, it is that we still know very little.

Countering this purely analytical and narcistic perspective of time held from the point of view of man, Pierre Huyghe is an artist who offers an other understanding. His works often take the form of events and scenarios which evolve within a set of parameters, functioning not as places of resolution but rather ‘departure points’ for further possibilities.

By examining Pierre Huyghe’s Untitled (Human Mask), The Third Memory and Untilled, I aim to identify various temporalities which are seen in his work, temporalities that have been allowed to occur naturally and ones which have been manipulated. I also seek to demonstrate how and why Huyghe’s contribution is relevant today, not just in terms of art, but in understanding this complex phenomenon from a new, other point of view.