Like it or not the half year mark has crept up on us.
Shows how fast time flies and makes us ponder what have we been doing for the past 26 weeks?
The Millennium Clock Tower in the National Museum of Scotland captured my eye last weekend.
The project combines the skills of the automata maker, the clock maker, the decorative glass maker and the woodworker; to celebrate the second millennium and expresses all the hopes and fears of the 20th century. It is a creation that talks of love, hate, play, humour, despair, life and death.
Interesting how art can depict life.
The clock is constructed in four major sections: the Crypt, the Nave, the Belfry, and the Spire; each carries different meanings of life.
From the base where the Crypt lies, signifies the base of society, earthly powers and the imprisoned Ancient Spirit.
The Nave is one interesting part where people live, love and die. It is the playground of people with great creative intellect but also of people like us who go about our everyday life of work, love and play, unaware of the threats that may befall us.
The heart of the tower, the Belfry houses the mechanism of the clock, the clock face, and the requiem. The clock face reflects the cycle of life, with its black moments, grey moments and a ray of sunshine. Not forgetting the requiem which consists of a circle of carved figures, represnting various hardships and tragedies that have afflicted humanity and is dedicated to all victims of the past centuries.
All is not doom and bleak though. The Spire represents man penetrating the sky to reach Heaven. The outside burnt wood but inside intact and richly inlaid floor suggests hope and survival. The Pietà onto of the clock sums up the world of the clock tower: the sadness of the one left behind and the courage it takes to carry on.
I wonder what the next 26 weeks is going to hold for me?
Certain excerpts taken from The Millennium Clock Tower flyer produced by The Millennium Clock Makers Trust.
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