Grace Weir: Time Tries All Things

“Time is intrinsic to both physics and film-making. How can we align the extraordinary theoretical concepts of time within physics with our everyday experiences of time and its representations? Time Tries All Things positions two differing concepts of time in a filmic portrayal of two physicists’ viewpoints, through the unfolding of a moment when a photograph is taken of a 19th century stone plaque. Carved with the words ‘Time trieth troth,’ the moment opens into a consideration of the elasticity of the present instant and the flux of history.” –Grace Weir

Time Tries All Things by Irish artist and filmmaker Grace Weir is the inaugural show in the Gallery at the new Institute of Physics building in the heart of London’s Kings Cross. Weir’s immersive two screen video installation is a poetic and lyrical meditation on different conceptions of time; scientific, philosophical and cinematic. It has been developed from her collaboration with two renowned theoretical physicists, Professor David Berman of Queen Mary University London and Professor Fay Dowker of Imperial College London. Time Tries All Things runs from January 21 until March 29, 2019 and admission is free. 

Time Tries All Things invites viewers to reflect on their own lived experience of time and how it can be illuminated by scientific knowledge and theory. The profound and complex question of how we understand time has exercised scientists, philosophers, writers and artists since the earliest civilisations, from Galileo to Stephen Hawking. The questions with which they have grappled are formidable: How do we measure time? Is it absolute or relative? Does it flow, moving forwards from a fixed, known past towards an unfixed, unknown future? Is time an illusion? Is the past real? Does the future exist already? Weir explores these questions through her 30-minute work, featuring Professor Dowker and Professor Berman, reflecting on their own theoretical perspectives on time. 

Born in Dublin Ireland in 1962, Grace Weir works primarily in the moving image and installation. Her work explores the dynamic of practice and representation at the levels where issues of identity and temporality coincide. Weir represented Ireland at the 49th International Venice Biennale and has exhibited widely nationally and internationally. She was recently Artist-in-Residence in the School Of Physics, Trinity College Dublin and had a solo exhibition at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in 2015-2016. More at www.graceweir.com.

The Institute of Physics is the professional and learned society for physics in the UK and Ireland, inspiring people to develop their knowledge, understanding and enjoyment of physics. 

Located in King’s Cross, London’s international transport hub and home to the Knowledge Quarter, the new glass fronted, purpose-built permanent home for physics has been designed by TateHindle and represents a cultural shift towards visibility and inclusivity.