The 59th Minute: Countdowns
Aïda Ruilova
December 20, 2005–March 6, 2006
Times Square
Image: Aïda Ruilova
Aïda Ruilova’s psychologically charged and visually striking video Countdowns gave a dynamic twist to the tradition of countdowns, an infamous annual event, particularly in Times Square. Projected onto the giant Astrovision screen where the infamous New Years Eve ball has dropped since 1907, Ruilova’s work presented a jittery, rapid sequence of counting images or references, culled from sources such as the children’s television show Sesame Street, rockets blasting off into outer space, the countdown at the beginning of films, and of course, the international tradition of boisterously counting down the last ten seconds of the year. Caught within the format of video however, Ruilova’s frenetic images created an antitheis of countdowns—never climaxing, never ending, always waiting, and fated to repetition at the fifty-ninth minute of every hour.