the original “perfect lovers” by felix gonzalez-torres, 1991. these two identical, adjacent and battery-operated clocks were initially set to the same time; but, within time, they will inevitably fall out of sync. so true.

‘perfect lovers’ by tobias wong. two commercial clocks outfitted with atomic radio receivers which automatically synchronize to the U.S. atomic clock and tells time accurate to 1 second every million years.

it’s funny, just yesterday we were speaking about tobias wong. a love/hate discussion, as one can imagine. in the end, we do love his work, and his ‘devil may care’ attitude in a sea of self-obsessed and self-serious artists and designers.  the two works may appear the same, they even bear the same title; however, i can’t say that wong has stolen anything here as the “idea” is altered which is far superior than the form.  in his own way, he is crushing the romantic notion of felix gonzalez-torres, where the clocks/lovers sadly fall apart in time. tobias’ version flexes its middle finger to all that is sentimental and romantic in the coldest and most rational way of all… the atomic clock. as KL suggested maybe he’s testing our knowledge? he could have credited felix gonzalez-torres for the inspiration… but that would be contrary to this icy-cold-world idea. by dd + kl