Maison&Objet 2016: London studio Poetic Lab has designed a clock with sculptural hands that form different shapes as they turn (+ movie).
The faceless Silo clock is sold as a collection of sculptural forms – including 12 perspex markers and a set of triangular hands – that the owner can then arrange themselves.
Designed as a "kinetic sculpture" that offers an alternative to conventional timepieces, Silo's line-drawn hands reference geometric forms.
The hour and minute hand are each incomplete triangles, and as they turn with the passage of time, the shape they form together changes.
"It's a simplistic sculptural clock designed to create mesmerising aesthetic appeal through the use of angular hour and minute hands that play on mathematical tangential relations and triangular forms," said the studio.
"With Silo, we were looking to portray time in a poetic sense, using essential elements like thin lines and circles combined in a beautiful harmony of colours, shapes and materials."
The clock can be installed with all of its 12 hour markers, just a few, or none at all, depending on the preferences of its owners.
Poetic Lab designed the timepiece after several inquiries about its Shadow Clock – a lamp that used changes in light to project shadows on the wall that could be used to tell the time.
Although the clock was originally designed as an installation piece, Poetic Lab decided to translate it into an object that would embody similar principles, but work as a piece of homeware.
"We wanted to create a timepiece which is a bit indirect, using simply a vague outline to capture the moment,"Â said the studio, which has also designed lamps that cast watery shadows, and a collection of geometric desk accessories.
"The 12 precision-cut smoky perspex indicating markers complement the design language of the clock itself and produce beautiful shadows with sunlight."
The clock will be available through the studio's own label Beyond Object – in silver, gold or copper versions. It made its debut at Maison&Objet in Paris, which takes place from 2 to 6 September 2016.
Other recent clocks include a touch-responsive design that uses shadows to show the time, and a clock that replaces mechanical hands with a 12-hour-long video performance.