It’s easy to rush through Paddington in the hordes of commuters and tourists. Watching over all this is a clock suspended over seven meters from the ground. Inside, there appears to be a man painting and erasing the hands of time. If you don’t see him, he’s gone for a very brief break, but he works almost constantly so that commuters can catch their trains on time.
This is the Real Time Clock, one in a series of timepieces created by the Dutch artist Maarten Baas. Some of his other pieces include the Sweepers Clock in Rotterdam, where the hands are created by two workers sweeping debris into careful positions, and the Schiphol Clock in the Schiphol Airport, where the hands appear to be painted into place in real time.
