MARKING TIME
Two photographs, 100 x 100 cm, and 60 x 60 cm each, composed in 2010
Exploring ways in which to visualize time and its passing has been a constant preoccupation with artists. The phenomenology of time, how past, present and future is interpreted and revealed across diverse media is a recurring theme in contemporary art and continually challenges artists in their creation and treatment of this subject and its interactive visual representations. Attard's prime motivation of temporal measurement takes an unusual tangent in the making of these photographs. By turning abstract philosophical problems into visual explorations, using mandalas consisting of concentric squares and circles of green and red apples suspended in water, the artist offers us a sustained piece of thought on marking time. The Mandala is a geometric pattern that represents the cosmos metaphysically or symbolically. Times-wheel or time cycles are central in tantric Buddhism and these cyclical models provide the notion of spatial or temporal infinity.