A reflection on Norman O’Flynn’s Timekeeper series

From 28 May WORLDART will host the second of our Online Only series exhibitions. This show will feature a selection of Norman O’Flynn’s Timekeeper portraits – all available as limited edition prints.

Norman O’Flynn painted the first Timekeeper portrait in 2015. It started as an impromptu portrait of a friend but became much more as he added tattoo-like sketches and slogans relevant to this person’s life. He did more paintings similar in style and realised these images and slogans had less to do with the subject in the portrait than it had with the world in which they live. It turned out to be a reflection of what is happening right now, in other words, it was a reflection of our time. And so the Timekeeper series came to be. 

“I realised that what came out was just me observing the glitch. I wasn’t trying to tell anyone what to do or what I think. I just showed them what I saw,” says O’Flynn. A Norman O’Flynn iconography developed. One filled with bombs falling from the sky and timers indicating that time is running out, religious and superhero iconography suggesting our need for someone to save us or for spirituality in any form, sharks circling the waters above us (are we drowning?) and binary code referring to the digital worlds we live in.

The figures also always wore masks. “It’s a filter. It protects us from what we take in and what we release, germs, words – all of it” he says. We’re toxic and we spread it. But we need protection from this too. We are also really busy sharing our opinions, especially on social media platforms, but do we actually make a contribution? Or is the truth that we are saying nothing because we’re too busy saying the things that we think will gain us credibility and help us look cool? “So I covered the mouths.”

We don’t know who or what to believe in. We also don’t know who or what to believe. So we have become our own gods in this world where we have to look cool and say the right things while time is running out. These are the Timekeepers.

- Charl Bezuidenhout, Cape Town 2020