N o o r N u y t e n +

Marie de Bruynvan Tetterode

Offline Timer

glass, recycled silver from smartphones, 10 × 10 cm

Although glassblowing techniques are centuries old, the material is still a mystery for scientists: glass behaves both as a solid and as a fluid at the same time. To prevent glass from bursting spontaneously, it is essential for it to cool down very gradually during the production process. For Offline Timer – One Decade, Nuyten played with the cooling-down procedure. The work consists of a series of black glass spheres that have cooled down in various ways, for example at room temperature and outside in the wind. As a result, they are ticking time bombs: within ten years’ time, they will burst of their own accord. The glass has been sprinkled with tiny pieces of silver, which were originally part of recycled smartphones. As a result, the surface tension of the glass is even higher, and the spheres are reminiscent of celestial globes or star systems in their appearance. Together, the timers form a conceptual clock, in which time moves just as amorphously, unpredictably, and mysteriously as the molecules of glass.