Tauba Auerbach Exhibit

In this series of artist’s books, slim hardcover volumes open up into complex geometric shapes. Auerbach’s choice of the pop-up technique, most commonly used in children’s books, relates to her interest in perception, specifically how we, as creatures who operate in three dimensions, might have the capacity “to conceive of a dimension that’s beyond, or even coiled within, the space that we experience.” These books grew out of the artist’s experiments in painting, in which she employs optical effects like shadows, creases, and geometric patterns to create canvases that, though flat, suggest three-dimensional topographies. Here she explodes these planes by allowing the die-cut forms to transform from flattened, folded paper into carefully realized sculptures. Highlighting the animation of this transition from two to three dimensions, Auerbach titled the series [2,3], using the mathematical term for the interval between 2 and 3.

Issue 20, by visual artist Tauba Auerbach, takes the form of a 24-hour wall clock. Auerbach is known for creating work about language and logic through a variety of media. Her training as a traditional sign painter often informs her text-based work. For this issue, the artist designed the clock face and its 24 numerals. The clock’s mechanism runs from midnight to midnight, meaning the hands circle the clock once every 24 hours. This time keeping system, also known as military time or astronomical time, is the most commonly used numerical time notation in the world today, yet very few analog clocks employ a 24-hour mechanism.

Made entirely in the United States, the clean design of the clock features black aluminum hour and minute hands and Auerbach’s 24 gold-hued numerals against a clean white face. The clock measures 10.5 inches in diameter, can be hung up with a built-in hook, and is powered by a single AA battery (not included). THE THING and Ms. Auerbach collaborated with New York-based design team Assembly to design and manufacture this issue almost entirely from scratch.