The Glass Ticker

2017
8’ X 13’ X 5’
wood, enamel, lights, aluminum, glass, automata



About The Glass Ticker

The project began when Meigs found a 1930s automaton from The Netherlands—a child-sized boy with curly orange hair in jaunty lederhosen. Originally, this figure would have been placed in the window of a shop, probably a toy or confectionery store. His arm mechanically moves up and down to tap a pane of glass while his head turns from side to side. Tick: here. Tick: there. Meigs recreates this scene using 3D printing technology to construct doubled, mirrored automata, one in each window of a spectacularly painted art deco storefront called “Cosmos”. The twins’ repetitive expressions begin to cause slippages in perception. Tick: him. Tick: he. Tick: them. Tick: us. In time, their plural body suggests the possibility of physical interchangeability whereupon the shop’s façade seems to offer a portal beyond individual experience to the multitude to the cosmos to infinity to ALL.
— Ella McGeough