TIMELESS
1983
9 1/2 feet x 6 ft.x 5 ft.
Currently in the collection of the Artist
"Timeless, 1983, focuses with great precision on tiny movements. An old-fashioned clock mechanism is driven through a five-hour cycle by the mute gravitational energy of a hanging weight; as the weight descends, too slowly for the eye to see, intricate gears tick out a capricious and fascination dance around its silent, straight, invisible fall."
- Thomas McEvilley, Artforum, Nov. 1994.
...Timeless, looks like some kind of gigantic Erector-Set construction and is an example of what Tuck calls a “double five-legged gravity escapement.” Operating on a principle similar to that of Terminal Piece, it’s activated by turning yet another crank, which in this case winds a rope bearing a lead weight onto a pulley near the top of the contraption. When the crank is released, the weight yields to the pull of gravity, but this process is drastically slowed by an escapement device fashioned of screws and other metal parts that click rhythmically against each other as a pendulum swings back and forth until the weight reaches the floor.
- Tom Patterson, Winston-Salem Journal, January 19, 1992, Page C3.