Plug-in electrical timers, of the sort widely available in DIY shops and supermarkets are connected together in series so that an extremely long delay can be set.
Into the last of the timers is plugged a homemade display made of fairy lights arranged to read ‘3000’. Displays such as this, both homemade and manufactured, were seen widely at around the time of the 2000 celebrations. To avoid the risks of leaving everything to the last moment, I decided to prepare well in advance for the next millennium, the piece can now be left unattended and will light up in the year three thousand.
A moments thought soon dashes this hope, there will not be an uninterrupted power supply for 1000 years, the plastic will perish, the wood will disintegrate, and the timers, whilst generally reliable, will be unlikely to run smoothly for the required time.
The piece is more about the irrepressible optimism of the human spirit, the triumph of hope over expectation, and our ways of handling our own mortality.