Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster Untitled, 1985/2015

A clear glass vase, filled with white lilies is placed on top of a small white digital alarm clock, combining two unlikely components. The flowers are shown at different stages of opening. Their green stems and leaves extend into the water-filled vase, introducing a living, organic presence into the otherwise sparse arrangement.

The white cable connecting the clock to the wall socket reinforces the work’s engagement with domestic technology and the everyday environment, juxtaposing a technical timekeeping instrument with an organic element that grows and gradually decays. Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster’s interest in abstract concepts such as time, duration, and transformation becomes apparent. As a traditional motif in religious iconography associated with innocence and, by implication, the immaculate Virgin Mary, the white lily also carries a history of symbolic meaning. Its presence draws attention to the often overdetermined meanings that objects accumulate, while the work’s simple arrangement leaves those associations open and subject to the viewer’s experience.