Hands for a clock
Nora Schultz
2025
Tin
Ca. 42 x 10 x 1 cm
Edition of 12 copies, all unique, signed and numbered by the artist on a certificate, plus 1 artist’s proof and 1 publisher’s proof
Hands for a Clock consists of two life-size tin drumsticks. While they may initially appear as a pair, their formal imbalance suggests that they function as a single drumstick and its shadow, establishing a relationship of projection. Nora Schultz has long been interested in the representation of sound, not through codified systems of notation, but through poetic language, visual and material processes. Cast in a metal that is surprisingly flexible, the drumsticks barely support their own weight, undermining the associations of solidity and force traditionally linked to percussion. The drips and traces left by the casting process, as if the forms were still in the process of emerging, heighten this sense of malleability and complicate the latent sonic potential embedded in these objects.
As its title suggests, the work also refers to another system of notation—that of time—embodied by the clock. Deprived of a dial, the two “hands” become markers of an open and fluid temporality, freed from the regularity of the mechanical clock. Through these elementary and ambiguous forms, the artist subtly and humorously creates a blurring at the intersection of two systems of signification.