Verbal Description: Sable Elyse Smith’s A Clockwork

Narrator: Sable Elyse Smith’s A Clockwork (2021) is made of aluminum, steel and a motor. It measures 14 ft. 7 1⁄2 in. × 13 ft. 9 1/8 in.× (4.5 × 4.2 × 2.5 m). 

A Clockwork is a large-scale sculpture that resembles a Ferris wheel one might find at a traveling carnival. The work is extremely large, rising to a few feet below the gallery’s ceiling. A Clockwork is a continuation of a series of sculptures that Sable Elyse Smith has made referencing furniture design used in prison visiting rooms. The center wheel is framed by hexagon shapes that connect edge to edge and encircle the wheel’s entire perimeter. The hexagon is a replica on a one-to-one scale of the tables found in prison waiting rooms. The circumferences of smaller wheels to the left and the right of the main wheel incorporate replicas of the round seats that accompany the hexagon tables. 

Sable Elyse Smith: The entirety of the piece is powder coated in matte black. And it sort of slowly rotates, which also, I guess when you sort of first encounter it, I think the movement takes maybe a moment to be able to register. There is this uncanny sensibility or this questioning of, "Is it moving or is it not moving?" that happens.