“Borrowed Time,” an exhibit by Bess Paupeck will be on display at Gallery 321, Washington Street Art Center, Somerville until March 25. — Photos by Denise Provost

Reviewed by Denise Provost

Bess Paupeck started by gathering clocks and watches for the exhibit she planned in 2019. Paupeck, an artist and museum professional, was not interested in these objects simply for their own sake. Her thinking then was that “these are almost defunct objects -if you keep them, why do you keep them?”

The timepiece exhibit that Paupeck contemplated would have been on display from November to December of 2020. Unsurprisingly, that show never materialized. COVID-19, which intervened, caused us to experience “disruption in our sense of time,” Paupeck says. Her focus broadened, aiming to understand “what time is now, in this part of the pandemic which is not pre-, and not post-.”

In how many ways can time be measured? This show moves beyond the most familiar timepieces, even as it offers us the exotic: clock faces which show the hours with equations, characters from another alphabet, or numbers which trail off into “whatever…” There are clocks shaped like animals and objects – and plenty of objects which are not clocks.

This art installation presents objects which represent the thought-provoking ways which people use to keep track of their experience with time. It speaks to “our compulsion to mark time,” said Somerville resident Don Meglio, at the exhibit’s February 11 opening.

Borrowed Time brings back “a lot of memories for me of [when] I saw these objects in other places and at other times,” reflected musician Rich Thomas, at the exhibit’s February 11 opening event.

Ruth Faris confesses that “everywhere I look is my favorite.”

Paupeck’s Borrowed Time applies insight, wit, and a fine aesthetic sense to its exploration of time-related objects used within a community. It invites us to think about time generally, and about how the COVID era has changed our perception of time. Paupeck isn’t just uniting objects with their individual stories – she is connecting them to our broader human experience.

Visit Borrowed Time at Gallery 321, Washington Street Art Center, 321-D Washington Street, Somerville (first building on the right; the red door.) Gallery hours will be every Saturday through March 25, from 12:00 to 4:00 p.m. Check out related programming at: https://washingtonstreet.squarespace.com/events/2023/02/11/paupeck-borrowed-time