A wall, covered in moss and peppered with peculiar metal discs connected with pieces of wire, surrealistically emitting disjointed sounds of nature, watches and watchmaking: the chirp of crickets; the chime of a grande sonnerie; the buzz of a CNC milling machine. This scene was present at Art Basel Hong Kong, where Swiss watchmaker Audemars Piguet, having commissioned the last piece, is showing that the worlds of art and watchmaking may not be that dissimilar. After all, the passion, creativity and dedication of watchmakers parallel those of painters and sculptors; artists in their own right, the watch is their canvas.
The sound installation was by 37-year-old French-born, Geneva-based artist Alexandre Joly. Dubbed Wild Constellations, it augments Mineral Lab, first shown last year by fellow Frenchman Mathieu Lehanneur, 41. Working off a similar, but smaller, 4m by 3m wall in his studio, Joly first constructed his piece, made of tiny piezo speakers – they create sound when electrically excited, as their quartz crystals vibrate – connected via piano strings and copper wire, and fixed with magnets. He then travelled to the Audemars Piguet manufacture in Le Brassus to record sounds that the watch makes, from the fabrication of the watch, and from the natural surroundings. He built up a large library of such samples and carefully stitched them together, using software music sequencer Ableton Live, into a seamless 45-minute-long soundtrack.
The installation was done in a startling short period of time, having been commissioned only early in November last year. But the amount of time in between the Art Basel fairs – Hong Kong in March, Basel in June and Miami in December – allows Joly to tinker with his creation.
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