This Thing Has Been Covered With A Sheet Since 1985. But There’s An Amazing Reason Why You Must See.

The clock has been shrouded since 1985.

It is currently housed in the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

It is almost completely covered.

The draping sheet is corded tightly around the middle.

But… there is no sheet. The “clock” is carved from a single block of wood.

It’s a piece called Ghost Clock by American furniture builder and artist Wendell Castle.

At first glance, Ghost Clock appears to be a grandfather clock hidden by a large white sheet tied with a rope. A closer look, however, reveals a masterful deception: this entire sculpture was hand-carved from a single block of laminated mahogany. With meticulous detail, Castle re-created in wood the contours of soft, supple cloth, then completed the illusion by bleaching the “drapery” white and staining the base of the “clock” a walnut brown. This work is the last in a series of thirteen clocks the artist created in the 1980s; unlike the others, it lacks an inner mechanism. Its haunting stillness and silence suggest eternity-the absence of time.

I still can’t believe the craftsmanship here. A single block of wood…carved to look like cloth. If you found this as startling as we did, please share this with your friends.