London Design Festival 2011: a watch featuring a looter running off with a TV while a riot policeman stands and watches is one of a series of one-off, customised time pieces commissioned by Dezeen from Dominic Wilcox. Update: watch an interview with Wilcox on Dezeen Screen.
The series of seven sculptures, each featuring tiny, hand-crafted figures attached to the watch hands, will be exhibited at Dezeen Space in Shoreditch, London from 17 September to 16 October.
The Looter watch was inspired by the recent riots in London, which Wilcox witnessed first hand. Wilcox says: “I had to walk across Mare Street in Hackney to get home during the riots. I remember seeing a boy carrying an LCD TV down a back street. I noticed how the police seemed unsure how to react, holding their circular shields while the boy held a rectangular TV."
The series also features a watch with a man so engrossed in his iPhone that he fails to notice an incredible feat of balance and strength occurring right next to him; and another with a young girl trying to stop a butcher killing a floating pig.
Each sculpture is a unique piece, based on a vintage watch and protected by a glass dome. The watches will be on sale for £500 + VAT = £600 each at Dezeen Space, at 54 Rivington Street, London EC2A 3QN.
See all our stories about Dominic Wilcox, including coat hooks made from paint-encrusted brushes and a nose-mounted device that allows you to use your smartphone while in the bath.
Above: London Looter. "A hooded youth sprints away with a 42 inch LCD TV while a riot policeman looks on."
Above: The unrequited handshake. "The outstretched hand of friendship is continually rejected."
Above: Rest time. "A brief moment to sit."
Above: A man, engrossed in his iphone, is oblivious to the monkey balanced on the head of a weightlifting boy who stands on the arm of an elderly rollerskater. "That is the title."
Above: Adventures of a young vegetarian OR Pigs shall fly. "A small girl attempts to stop a butcher chopping up a pig by hanging on his arm while the pig floats away."
Above: Hide n seek. "A pig tailed girl hides behind a tree from a searching boy."
Above: Watch sweeper. "The numbers and hands of a watch are swept away by a watch sweeper."
Here's some text from Wilcox:
Watch sculptures: Moments in time by Dominic Wilcox
Dominic Wilcox has created a series of miniature time-based sculptures using a collection of vintage watches and customised model figures. By attaching tiny figures onto the second and minute hands of each watch, Wilcox has made unique, animated scenes from everyday observations and imagined situations.
Background info
Last September I undertook a project called Speed Creating (shown at the Anti design festival) where I made a new creative thing each day for 30 days. It was during that time that I came up with the idea of attaching figures onto the hands of watches. I decided I should take more time developing the idea so made the decision not to use it in the Speed Creating project.
Eight months later I showed a prototype to the people at Dezeen and they commissioned me to create a collection of these watch sculptures for September. I wanted to create a series of scenes and fleeting moments both observed and imagined. Playing with the idea of unending repetition.
The miniature figure on the second hand moves around constantly and the figure on the minute hand appears stationary. I spent time thinking about the relationship between the two people, how one passes another repeatedly and I tried to think about when that situation happens in real life or in an imagined scenario.
I altered head and arm angles of found model figures and made objects such as the LCD tv with wire and plug. The glass domes are hand blown to fit each watch exactly.
