Of a Second

2022
Ten drawings, pen and ink on paper, each 30x30cm
Photography credit: Document Photography

Of a Second is a suite of ten drawings that contemplate durations of one second and below, and the events that occur within these minute intervals. The works consist of decimal numbers written by hand in pen and ink at a scale of 1mm. Each number represents a fraction of a second, while the title of each drawing refers to an event that takes place within that duration. Extending earlier works such as The Veil (after René Magritte’s The Lovers) and Infinite, the series traces a progression from the smallest measurable unit of time—the distance light travels in Planck time (5.39116 × 10⁻⁴⁴ seconds)—through a range of sub-second phenomena, including subatomic activity and processes within the human body. The series concludes with the distance light travels in one second, marking a return to a perceptible temporal scale.