Ugo Rondinone gray blue white clock, 2013

Each clock is based on the traditional clock face. It is perfectly spherical, and divided internally by concentric circles radiating from the centre. Large Roman numerals, articulated in slender lines of grey lead, curl round the perimeter. Although every clock is rendered in delicate stained glass and finely framed in pale grey lead, they are available in a multitude of vivid colours and each have subtly different designs.

The hands that usually mark the passing seconds, minutes and hours, however, are missing from Rondinone’s clocks. Denying this familiar object of its functionality, the artist has transformed the clock from something that relentlessly charts the moments of our everyday existence into a strangely abstract entity. The clocks' fragile material, commonly associated with decorative or sacred windows, reinforces its conscious poeticism. Without the distraction of ticking hands, the translucent clock becomes a contemplative window onto the idea of passing time. The notion of speed compels Rondinone, who believes that the power of art lies in its ability to alter our pace. “Good art revolutionises your whole being,” he has said. “It is something that stops you, or slows you down.”