Gabrielle Hoad

A view across the goal area of a rugby field, with tall trees and blue sky behind.  The posts are in strong sunlight and cast uncanny double shadows.

Two-handed timekeeper – Exeter and Letchworth (Longitude -3.542433 and -0.22703)
Still from digital video – 3 minutes, looped | 2021

During the mid-19th century, with the coming of the railways, many of Exeter's public clocks had two minute-hands, one showing Railway Time (or GMT), the other Local Time, which was approximately 14 minutes behind by the Sun.

Two-handed timekeeper is derived from a recording of shadows moving across a playing field in Exeter on 14 July 2021. The footage has been split, overlaid and speeded up to make visible the solar time difference between Letchworth and Exeter.

This work arose from shared research and experiments made with Savinder Bual during the Correspondence 01 project. It reflects on human-made rules and scales of measurement versus the independent movement of the Earth in relation to the Sun.

Two mirror-image versions of the video were shown simultaneously at Correspondence 01 exhibitions: one at Exeter Phoenix, the other at Broadway Gallery Letchworth.