Jack Grapes, Artist, Writer, Author, Instructor: The first five minutes you're bored and you're
thinking I can’t, I’m not going to be able to sit here for another five minutes
and before you know it you're there for two hours, three hours and it's riveting, it's unbelievable.
Who would have thought to do that?
Film Courage: Who was the artist that did the LACMA [Los Angeles County Museum of Art] lights?
Jack: Chris Burden. I love him. I would have never expected that to be as iconographic and
as popular as it is. He did something that somehow captured the imagination of people and transcended
it being 1) a spectacle and 2) a work of art. It's something beyond that because on some
level it's like a bunch of lights. What's the big deal with that and on another level it's
not art, what is it? Well it's a place people like to go to, like a ride at Coney Island.
What's the difference? You know I don't know but art sometimes uh connects to people in ways that
we don't really anticipate or or understand there's just something about art that I don't
know you just it like like duchamp's urinal you know he puts this urinal in a room in a museum and
it's done you could copy that and do something you know put something else in there that would be so
ridiculous but he did it it's done he put a urinal in an army scene it's very famous
so painters and sculptors as filmmakers they do something and sometimes you can't
you can't you can analyze it all you want but there's an area that's unexplainable
and I love the light thing that I mean I love to see people there uh I remember there was a
what was it it wasn't a blackout but it was something and it was it was the only thing
in the area that was lit and people were just having so much fun there
so you know it's weird it's just have you have you seen the car thing the cars
haven't been to LACMA in a little bit oh I don't know if the cars are still there
did you see the film with the guy with the time with the clock it was called the clock
and it exactly went with the time on clocks and it was a 24-hour film didn't see that one
I mean it it was an experience I went I was in Paris a year later and it was being held in Paris
at the time but it's just a series of shots from movies that have a clock in them a time
and as you watch it the time on the clock is exactly what time it is over a 24-hour period so
it begins in the morning and it ends at midnight um you know it begins at well it begins at
midnight but then it ends at midnight uh the first five minutes you're bored and you're thinking
I can't I’m not going to be able to sit here for another five minutes and before
you know it you're there for two hours three hours and it's riveting it's unbelievable
who would have thought to do that it's called the clock I mean it's it's in the beginning you
couldn't see it all 24 hours because you could only see it during the hours that the museum
was open so if the museum opened at nine in the morning and it closed at eight at night
at eight at night they would say okay folks you gotta leave or you'd get there at eight in the
morning you could see it from eight but you would never get to see what happened after eight or
after midnight you know but then the closing so I'd gone several times and saw two or three
hours of it at different times and then they said they were going to show all 24 hours at
the museum the last day and I was there for the whole 24 hours oh wow and at the end there were
I would say a quarter of the theater were people who'd been there the whole time
and when it was over with we all stood up and cheered and were hugging each
other like you made it and it was one of those transcendence experiences I've never forgotten it
and it's utterly ridiculous I mean who would want to watch that every every scene
was two seconds five seconds maybe 10 seconds and it was a clock it could be someone looked at
their wrist watch could be a grandfather clock clock on a train station just scenes that had
no connection at all how could you watch five hours of that it became mesmerizing
it was unbelievable I tell you one of one of the most amazing things I ever saw what year was this
two thousand something early maybe twenty years ago something like that yeah
citizen LACMA okay but I don't know if when they'll show it again but if they
will people will go to you know it toured all over the world so but your question was about
you know when an artist creates something you you never know what's going to happen you never know
what's going to catch people's imagination I don't even know why we all stood up and cheered and were
hugging each other at the end maybe because we had been there for 24 hours and maybe because we were
able to endure it I don't know what it was but it was a feeling of of exaltation it was amazing
i've never experienced that before because when I saw it normally you would just walk
out at some point or if you were there like it's six o'clock at night at eight o'clock the guy
would come in and go okay folks we have to close it down the museum is closing so there was no
like experience but for that there was it was amazing did you stay up the full 24 hours
that was the when it did the last show they specifically said it was going to be 24 hours
before it was at the museum you could only see it during the museum hours consequently you
were only seeing like if the museum opened at nine the first image you saw was nine o'clock
and as the day wore on it would be ten one three five you could stay from nine to eight
but you you'd still miss a lot and I never did stay more than four hours
so when I went I would stay three maybe four hours and I'd go with friends and we would get
loaded or something and watch it or something but that last night when it was going to be 24 hours
I made I plan to be there for the whole thing I think there was one point where I knew
I had seen that twice an hour I'd seen it twice and I left and got myself something to eat and
then I came back my seat got taken so I had to stand against the wall but then eventually
someone left and I sat down it was amazing read about it the clock check it out Google it.
Do
you have the stamina to watch a movie for 24 hours straight?