David Horvitz: Let Us Keep Our Own Noon

In conjunction with the exhibition Crossing Brooklyn: Art from Bushwick, Bed-Stuy, and Beyond, artist David Horvitz offers an experience of destandardized time. Comprised of 47 hand bells that Horvitz melted down from a single French church bell dating from 1742, the piece is activated by 47 participants who gather in the gallery to ring the bells starting at local noon (the exact midpoint between sunrise and sunset, when the sun is highest in the sky). They then disperse, redistributing time as they move away from one another until they can hear no bell but their own. Referring to a phrase in a late-nineteenth century pamphlet protesting the standardization of time, Let Us Keep Our Own Noon alludes to a desire for a more idiosyncratic, communal, and natural relationship to time.