Last fall the Citizen Watch company commissioned a special piece. My assignment was to “re-imagine” one of their timepieces and to make an object that fits my imagination and personal language.
The watch is called the eco drive- EYES. I re-imagined the watch as an owl and I called my piece ” The Time Keeper”.
He is an expression of the eco-drive watch and an expression of time itself. Focusing on visual and conceptual aspects of the watch, first and most significantly – his face- his eyes specifically, refer in a direct way to to the face of the watch.
Extensive mending was necessary to give the fragile garment structural integrity and that mending is apparent and celebrated, time marks, time transforms. The stitches express the characters and marks of the watch face – stitches sometimes measured and precise ( marking seconds). Stitches and patches expressed as numbers and letters and circles or portions of circles sometimes shifting in scale.
The marks refer to the design of the watch as well as illustrating a passage of time across the owls surface and acknowledging the history and life span of the ruined antique bodice he is made from.
He has gone off to live in the Citizen showroom in Tokyo. Also he is featured in Real Scale Magazine ( a supplement of Ginza) in Japan. The article was written by David G. Imber and Yoshida Mika with photos by Jen Causey.
I think the article will be available on line soon and I’ll post a link when it is.
