13ThingsLA: July 22

A week of art about putting the pieces back together, reconsidering history, and reframing pretty much every discourse—at LACMA, Fahey/Klein Gallery, Karma Los Angeles, Charlie James Gallery, Philosophical Research Society, Aabee Bleue Project, LA Public Library, LA Center of Photography, ReflectSpace, Diane Rosenstein Gallery, Face Guts, Advocartsy (new location!), and LA Dance Project.

Christian Marclay: The Clock (2010) opens July 26 at LACMA. One of the most satisfying works of video art ever made, Marclay’s masterpiece proceeds from a deceptively straightforward premise—a precisely 24-hour single-channel film collage sequenced from many thousands of clips, each of which features a clock, and which together chronicle a single complete day, synced to screenings’ local time zones. From the auspicious to the zany, ominous to hilarious, and somehow inspiring audiences to clap at the turn of each hour (and at 4:20 for some reason), the sheer eclecticism and timey-wimey delight gives way to something more profound and existentially weighted with durational viewing—especially if you go in for one of the overnight events—as anxious awareness of inexorable mortality joins the tick-tick-tick of its rhythms. Free w/ general admission (except special 24-hour events on July 25 & August 22), during regular museum hours through August 23; lacma.org. —SND