A watch made of corrugated cardboard? The illusion is disturbing. David Bielander’s watch is made of patinated silver, and the hands are made of white gold, stuck at 10:10 am, as they should be in a watch shop. The Milan-based Swiss designer enjoys bamboozling viewers by luring them with, for example, this counterfeit piece that goes against the flow. The surprise triggers an immediate reaction and a special relationship between the wearer and the viewer.
“I aim to walk that fine line between making something simple enough that one unavoidably recognises, that simultaneously requires a fair conscious effort to get beyond the obvious, and at the same time to be abstract enough that it allows a shift to happen, so that the piece becomes something altogether new when it unpredictably connects with you.”
Bielander searches for the most suitable technique to create the illusion, spending hours working for the silver to become corrugated cardboard, and to reproduce the folds, defects and tint of the imitated material. There is humour in the delight Bielander takes in the clever trick he has played on us, and it is a trick we appreciate.
