About the exhibit
The artwork ‘Time Eater’ is built on the archetype of the all-devouring monster. This image found its widest embodiment in Greek mythology in the figure of Chronos, who devoured his own children. Drawing on the image of the langoliers from Stephen King's novella of the same name, Konstantin Chaykin views the creature through the lens of his own experience as engineer and watchmaker. The watch wheel becomes a gaping, toothed mouth, and the figure itself takes on the traits of a mechanical being, devouring hours, minutes and seconds according to the laws of mechanical anatomy.
In this way, the mythological image becomes the starting point for an independent horological fantasy. Here, the familiar elements of the watch movement are transformed into an allegory of anxiety and of time's relentless advance. Konstantin Chaykin usually animates a horological detail by giving it the physical traits of a living being, but in ‘Time Eater’ the monstrousness of the archetype's expression plays the key role. In this way, the anxiety before time's relentlessness takes on an almost tangible form.
Cycle: Universum "Horological Archetypes"
In this way, the mythological image becomes the starting point for an independent horological fantasy. Here, the familiar elements of the watch movement are transformed into an allegory of anxiety and of time's relentless advance. Konstantin Chaykin usually animates a horological detail by giving it the physical traits of a living being, but in ‘Time Eater’ the monstrousness of the archetype's expression plays the key role. In this way, the anxiety before time's relentlessness takes on an almost tangible form.
In Haute Horology, an idea is resolved into engineering. In artwork, it remains a living thought, captured in the moment.
