Exhibition: Time Being

Time Being is an exhibition of a meditative 14-minute film made by Ruairí Corr, a creative maker who works through co-production, and artist Deborah Robinson. It is the first in-person activity in Peltz Gallery since before the pandemic.

Time Being explores what it means to wait in and through experiences of care. Waiting is ever-present in healthcare: from the time it takes to access services; through the days, weeks, months or years needed for diagnoses; in the time that treatment takes; and in the elongated time-frames of chronic illness, disability, recovery, rehabilitation, relapse, remission and dying.

In this context, Time Being explores time and slowness, and their sensory relationship to the way we acquire knowledge about the world and express ourselves. In place of narrative storytelling, the film pays intimate attention to four sensory materials: air, wood, clay and metal. It offers an immersive meditative experience, and a window onto interdependencies: between one another and the world around us.

Time Being provides us with an understanding of time beyond ‘productivity culture’, and alternative ways in which we might flourish.

Time Being was commissioned by Waiting Times, a research project investigating time and care based at Birkbeck, University of London and the University of Exeter, and funded by the Wellcome Trust.