Kate Brettkelly-Chalmers brings multiple arguments and notable points to the table when writing about time in contemporary art. She raises questions and answers some of them with compiled research, and observations, from multiple individuals made up of artists, scholars and philosophers. I am not quite sure which chapter happens to be my favorite or the one I found most interesting, but I admire how each chapter references one another to build. Specifically, how chapter three and then chapter five’s content flowed into one another. In both sections, there were multiple observations of ‘women’s work’ in art and time. This I found really interesting as she brings to light what other artists have demonstrated in multiple performance works, but then I noticed how it seems to become a timeless theme. The idea of women through time -and what they should be doing throughout their time, comes in a variety of ideologies. Although they differ between men and women, they also differ from woman to woman. There can be a general consensus about the subject, but when represented they are performed in a wide variety of intensity and content. Performances range from washing the stairs in front of the museum when it holds an exhibition of your work, to rocking back and forth “waiting” for the woman’s life to begin, to setting up your bed on display after a hard breakup to show how you were living your life for months… I guess what I am getting to, is that for women, there are multiple forms that ‘women’s work’ is expressed. All do not follow the standard cookie cutter thought that everything is fine- no, they make you uncomfortable, they make you think about what is going on in their head or what exactly is going on in front of you. So, after that long observation and explanation, I guess chapters three and five were my favorite.

When reading throughout the four chapters, I also thought it was interesting how many different theories and observations of time there are. There are so many layers that can be picked through when watching or observing a piece of art, but also just throughout life and living experience. There are a lot of terms that I did not think about. Terms like phenomenology and thinking about the difference between absolute and modern time- just to name a few. These chapters really made me think about where I am putting my time and if I am putting it in the right place… if there even is a ‘right place’ to dispose my time. It also made me think of different ways to create art that has not only meaningful in space but in time. And although those two elements -space and time- work contemporaneous to one another, they also are separate- to me at least. The work can be meaningful for the whole duration it is exercised in, for the amount of time it takes to complete, the time that of which it is currently in -whether relating to politics or current social awareness- or even maybe it is meaningful to the artist or observer themselves in that given moment of time. There are so many layers that were discovered in these chapters when discussed as a group that has helped me to understand Brettkelly-Chalmers writing, way better than I think I would when reading on my own.