Eclipsing Time: The Hourglass of Existence

Claude Monet’s  The Creuse Valley, Evening Effect was originally an ethereal display of dusk settling over the rugged French landscape, where twilight melted into the valley’s depths with a poetic softness. However, in this conceptual Dadaist reimagination, the valley no longer remains a mere landscape—it becomes a cosmic bridge between past and future, dream and reality, dissolution and rebirth. 

At the heart of the composition is an enormous hourglass, a surreal vessel encapsulating the passage of time, memory, and transformation. The top half of the hourglass holds a serene yet unsettling vision: a woman's face emerges from the water, half-submerged, her expression caught between surrender and awakening. A lone figure stands atop the surface, gazing into the horizon, seemingly lost in contemplation. This moment encapsulates the duality of existence—are we floating in time, waiting for it to pass, or do we stand above it, shaping our own destinies? The water, still and reflective, creates an illusion of stability, yet the hourglass trickles downward, pulling time and consciousness into the unknown. 

Below, in the lower chamber of the hourglass, the vision takes a dramatic shift. A human figure walks toward the center of a galactic vortex, as if stepping into the fabric of time itself. The swirling darkness, pulsating with cosmic energy, suggests an inevitable descent into transformation. This is not an end, but rather a gateway—one that leads into the unknown depths of existence. The shift between the two halves of the hourglass represents the fragility of human perception: the way we hold onto moments, fearing their loss, yet inevitably surrender to the pull of time. 

Surrounding the hourglass is Monet’s original landscape, now infused with celestial elements. The rolling hills and reflective waters remain, yet they seem to breathe with a new life, pulsing with the rhythm of the universe. A full moon floats in the sky, echoing the circular motif of the hourglass, reinforcing the theme of cycles—of time, of rebirth, of eternal movement. The hills, once merely distant shadows, now frame the descent of the sands within the hourglass, as if the land itself is a witness to time’s unraveling. 

The color palette of this piece intensifies its otherworldly nature. Deep purples and midnight blues dominate, evoking a sense of mystery and vastness, while warm oranges and golds flicker like remnants of light slipping through the cracks of time. The sand within the hourglass glows with an eerie luminescence, as if imbued with the knowledge of ages past. The contrast between these colors highlights the push and pull between dreamlike serenity and the chaotic unknown, mirroring the emotional depth of transition and self-discovery. 

As an artist, I wanted to explore the idea that time is not linear, but fluid—a force that does not merely move forward but bends, folds, and collapses into itself. The hourglass, a timeless symbol of fate and mortality, becomes a metaphor for human consciousness—our attempt to grasp fleeting moments before they dissolve into the void. The woman in the water, the lone figure above, and the traveler walking into the vortex each represent different facets of this journey: reflection, observation, and surrender. 

This piece is not just about time; it is about the liminal spaces in which we exist. The moments of hesitation before stepping into the unknown. The quiet pause before transformation. The realization that within destruction, there is always rebirth. Monet’s valley was once a place of evening stillness, but now it has become a realm of cosmic passage—an intersection between what was, what is, and what will be.