Metronome

METRONOME

Union Square South, New York City

Commissioned by:
The Related Companies with participation of
The Public Art Fund and The Municipal Art Society

Dimensions:
Central panel: 98 x 50 feet (29.8 x 15.2 m.)
Overall: 98 x 200 feet (29.8 x 60.9 m.)

Materials:
Brick, Steel, Aluminum, Bronze, L.E.D. Numeric Display, Incandescent Light, Gold.

Metronome is a composite work envisioned as a public time-piece that tells the multiple measures of time that simultaneously inform and confound our consciousness. For twenty years Metronome has accurately displayed the sum and balance of the 24-hour day down to one tenth of a second. In consideration of the urgency of climate change the daily countdown has been transformed to display a new critical measure of time: a Climate Clock counting down to a climate deadline that directly relates to the increasing temperature of the planet and our urgent need to achieve zero carbon emissions.

The physical elements that compose Metronome relate directly to its iconic location at the southern terminus of Park Avenue on the façade of One Union Square South. The fluid brick wall built in dimensional concentric circles suggests energy emanating outward or the opposite inward perspective. Gold leaf fragments burst forth from the circular aperture at its nucleus, proposing both beginning and end. An enlarged bronze hand poised high at ‘12 o’clock’ on the wall above, is cast from the historical statue of George Washington in Union Square Park directly below. The hand calls to mind both the “hand” of a clock and the hand of a Creator.

Counterpoised below on the wall is a massive piece of bedrock, evoking the millennia of geological history preceding the contemporary metropolis it now hovers above. Also positioned on the wall is a narrow bronze cone, suggestive in two dimensions of the second hand on a clock face, and in three dimensions of a gesture into deep perspective.

The central and most dramatic component of the work as it was originally conceived and built, was an animate plume of steam, which steadily emanated from the center aperture throughout the day before evaporating into thin air to reinforce and to echo the vanishing of time. The lively plume of steam was juxtaposed with the static bedrock below. The currently static aperture will soon be revised to relate directly to the Climate Clock and reflect real time environmental awareness.

The western wall mirrors celestial time. The half black and half gold sphere revolves in synchrony with the phases of the moon. On a full moon, the entire golden face of the orb is revealed.

The monumental Climate Clock, to the left of the brick centerpiece now counts down to how long it will take, at current rates of emissions, to burn through our “carbon budget” based on calculations by the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change in Berlin. The climate deadline is our precarious reality and Metronome now is an appeal to the public to take notice and take action to stop carbon emissions and change our relationship to the planet.

Metronome intends to raise awareness of the present moment in time, our relationship to the planet, the lunar cycle, geological epoch, eternity and impermanence.