By Yuri Pattison
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The National Debt Clock, New York, 2016, HD video still. Courtesy the artist; cinematography: Hideki Shiota
In an ongoing series, frieze invites artists to present a series of images that are important to them. This week London-based artist Yuri Pattison shares his selection. A new image will be posted each day this week.
The National Debt Clock, New York
The National Debt Clock sits roughly half a block from the advertising billboards and video displays of Times Square, New York. In 1989, the original model was gifted to the people of Manhattan by Seymour Durst (philanthropist, multi-millionaire property magnate and father of the infamous Robert) in an attempt to educate the voting public about the issue of rising national debt.
Since Durst’s death in 1995, his family has kept the clock running to an annoyingly meticulous degree, even turning it off between 2000 and 2002 to acknowledge the rare period of declining debt. In 2004, a new clock was installed. Within four years it reportedly ran out of digits as the country’s debt approached the USD$10 trillion mark.
Last summer I stood beneath the clock considering how, as a physical representation of the current economic climate, it is almost perfect: illuminated digits endlessly ticking skyward, depicting figures once thought of as astronomical. Out of all of my visits to America, it’s the only sign I’ve seen that’s not trying to sell something.
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The Crypt of Civilization at Oglethorpe University, Atlanta, Georgia. Courtesy the artist
The Crypt of Civilization at Oglethorpe University, Atlanta, Georgia
This is a quick iPhone photo I took outside the Crypt of Civilization at Oglethorpe University, Atlanta, Georgia. I made the pilgrimage to the Crypt this time last year with my partner Cécile and our friend Victoria, who had recently moved to the city.
The Crypt was initiated by Thornwall Jacobs and is acknowledged as the ‘first successful attempt to bury a record of this culture for any future inhabitants or visitors to the planet Earth.’ by the Guinness Book of Records (1990). It is noted as popularizing the ‘time capsule’ phenomenon.
Jacobs, the president of Oglethorpe (1915–43), had previously worked in advertising and the time capsule was a marketing ploy to rejuvenate the University. Inspired by recent discoveries from ancient Egypt (including the tomb of King Tut) he set the suggested future unsealing date of the Crypt to 8113 CE – a date calculated using the Egyptian calendar – and canvassed the public for suggestions for its contents.
Today, just as when it was sealed in 1936, the Crypt sits in the basement corridor of the Gothic revival campus, which is now in use as extra classroom space. Stacks of spare chairs from the language department sit beside an art deco stainless steel handle-less door sealing the crypt. A plaque on the door, some casual signage and a few framed photographs are the only clues to the contents or purpose of the room.
One of these framed photos is an image I had encountered many times online while looking for information on the crypt. Much clearer in its original printed form, the image is the only known depiction of the room’s contents shortly before it was sealed. We had travelled pretty far but this is as close as we would get to seeing The Crypt of Civilization.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
