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as this summary might make it appear, different exposures, stretching from five sobriety of this exegesis. In another
and he obviously found it difficult to seconds through to one minute in respect, however, the clock's gradual
inaugurate a definitive move away from duration, shown through the whole piece. dissolution introduces an element of
sculptural activity towards the ancillary And by settling on the idea of a normal unease. The almost moral force attached
process of documentation.' darkroom clock as the object in each case, to this revelation of how the camera can
Hilliard's adoption of the camera was Hilliard was able to convey the lengths of obliterate the reality it records contrasts
not blindly undertaken : it grew, by time employed without recourse to any absolutely with the prosaic construction
hard-fought degrees, from a stubborn external information. of the piece. It is an appropriately
refusal to skate over the anomalies A measure of how important this self- conceived tension as well as an
attendant upon an art form which feels sufficient system is for him can be effective one, because the 'warmth' of
obliged to cross-examine the adequacy of gauged from the fact that the first version Hilliard's warning about the devastating
its orthodox outlets. Photography for him of Sixty Seconds of Light, a single photo power of the camera is qualified by the
was in no sense a promised land to be of all the pictures arranged in three `coolness' of the knowledge that
greeted with unqualified enthusiasm. horizontal rows each containing four photographs are, in practical terms,
Rather was it an ambivalent opening, images, was accompanied by written produced by an impersonal machine.
which suggested a welcome path through notes of exposure length and aperture And so the clinical rigidity of Hilliard's
the thicket of media indeterminacy while beneath. But in the second version presentation accords with his earlier
at the same time running the risk of reproduced here, consisting of twelve search for an art that faithfully reflects the
degenerating into an alleyway rather than separate photographs in individual nature of the materials he uses. At once
opening onto a broad thoroughfare. Was frames arranged as a single row, the a disciplined foil for the startling
the examination of photography's verbal material was excluded in order to disclosure of the photograph's power to
function in art a side-issue incapable let the blurred movement of the clock's distort, and a compositional paradigm
of solving Hilliard's 'main' involvement second hand tell its own story. A greater of the camera as a technological
with environmental sculpture ? Or was it compactness of reference is gained, and implement, the regulated geometry
an inevitable consequence of his attention concentrated more intensely enclosing Sixty Seconds of Light is a
determination to admit the on the metamorphosis which the clock testament to Hilliard's attentive
irresponsibility inherent in continuing undergoes as it proceeds from solid understanding of form and content alike.
with his previous investigations ? This definition towards virtual extinction.
must have been the kind of dichotomy Such a thorough transformation lies at VI. But the minimalism of the
which Hilliard, and to a greater or lesser the heart of Hilliard's purpose: if this component parts which make up this
extent many other artists who arrived at substantial constant can be subverted by watershed in Hilliard's development also
a similar crossroads during the same a regulated series of stages and robbed of indicates the way he managed to carry
period, felt obliged to resolve. It may its identity so thoroughly that it finishes over some of his sculptural sensibility into
have been hedged round with up as little more than a ghostly, almost the photographic works. While the
qualifications, but he opted in the end to unidentifiable white circle, how much physicality of his previous object-making
focus both literally and metaphorically on more suspicious must we be of a was now abruptly renounced, and
the imperatives it raised. photographic record which does not exchanged for an examination of how
offer any information about the exact objects could be presented or abused
V. Up until i970, when the first of the circumstances dictating the image it through documentation, the scale and
serial photographic pieces which supplies ? Even Hilliard leaves us to infer seriality evident in works like the
Hilliard is still extending today was that he painted the clock-face black and St. Martin's installation piece were still
executed, his work suffered from an the hand white so they would reflect the retained. There is a largeness of form
inability to settle on a singleminded light, and that each of his photographs in Sixty Seconds of Light, a monumental
course of action. And although he was by was uniformly exposed in the frontality in the disposition of the clock
no means confident about the enlarger to the time-span needed for an faces, that bears the hallmark of
advisability of his new approach when he adequate image of the five-second sculptural thinking. Judd's

Sixty Seconds of Light, 1970
made Sixty Seconds of Light, it did negative.8 But these are mere incidentals Coll: Tate Gallery
introduce a firmness and clarity of in a context expressly devised to
purpose which soon characterized the encourage a total awareness of how and comparable horizontal wall works came
pieces following in its footsteps. Taking why the clock becomes progressively to mind, just as the 'monotonous' unit-
as his cue the attributes and capabilities subsumed in an envelope of light, stacking of Andre's metal floor-pieces
which the camera possesses and can whereas a normal documentary seems to underlie the massed ranks of
therefore employ in recording external photograph leaves its entire modus Thirty-Six Views', which was
appearances, Hilliard decided to operandi unexplained except on the most executed soon after the first version of
expound their variable effect on a superficial (and consequently most Sixty Seconds of Light.
constant object. Because these dangerous) of levels. The sitter is treated very much as a
variations are all dependent upon a The strength of works like Sixty sculpture: it becomes possible to
mechanical instrument, and Seconds of Light, then, stems from a imagine him detached from his body and
constrained by its built-in limitations, the combination of two distinct factors. In swivelling slowly on a pedestal as
form each work assumed was itself a one respect it is a severe and factual Hilliard's camera traces so many shifts in
direct reflection of the medium involved. demonstration of a specific function the head's structure through 36o degrees.
The twelve serial images comprising which the camera can be made to On this level, therefore, the piece can be
Sixty Seconds of Light are therefore perform, and no extraneous matter is regarded as a programmatic exposition of
inextricably equated with the twelve allowed to detract from the scientific how important it is to take every
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