Big Black Clock (It’s Almost 10)
(tag 729)
2024
Assemblage (11” x 8” x 3 ½”)
- Bottom half of a cigar humidor box
- Circa 1930’s Gilbert black-faced wind-up alarm clock
- 19th Century hand-held Moroccan magnifying glass
- Photograph collage featuring a rosary
- Photograph of a nude man
- Coiled copper wire
Description:
Big Black Clock (It’s Almost 10), blends humor, desire, and layered histories into a tightly framed reliquary. A weathered Gilbert alarm clock, frozen just before ten, anchors the composition while a mid-century male physique photograph and suspended rosary spark tension between the sacred and the erotic. A magnifying glass amplifies a specific part of the body, inviting both intimacy and awareness.
The title toys with the ear as much as the eye: depending on the viewer’s focus, “Big Black Clock” can be misheard as something far more provocative. Through this playful auditory pun, D’Elia disarms the viewer, encouraging curiosity while underscoring deeper themes of masculinity, coded desire, and the shifting passage of time.