Our Time is an award-winning contemporary assemblage sculpture created from hundreds of watches gifted to me by people in the community during the COVID-19 pandemic.
What if the most valuable thing time gives us is each other?
Two figures lean into one another in a quiet embrace, almost disappearing beneath hundreds of watches.
Some are elegant. Some battered. Some brightly coloured. Some stopped years ago. Remarkably, a few still tick.
I spent approximately eighteen months bringing those individual objects together until hundreds of separate histories became one human form.
From across a room, the watches begin to recede.
The embrace takes over.
Move closer and everything changes.
Individual watch faces appear. Straps, chains, clasps, scratches, colours and tiny mechanisms begin revealing themselves from every side. What first reads as two people holding one another gradually becomes hundreds of separate contributions, each carrying evidence of another life and another period of time.
That shift is central to the work.
Because Our Time is not really a sculpture about watches.
It is about us.
It is about separation, connection, the passage of time and the ordinary moments we rarely recognise as precious while we are living them.
The watches measure minutes, hours and years.
The sculpture asks what those measurements are actually worth without the people we share them with.
One of the things I love most about art is that not everyone will see the same thing. That’s exactly as it should be. The longer we spend with a piece, the more of ourselves we can often uncover.
For one person, Our Time may speak about partnership.
For another, family.
Friendship.
Absence.
Reunion.
Or simply the realisation that time with the people we love is never as ordinary as it feels while we still have it.
As a contemporary assemblage sculpture, Our Time rewards both distant viewing and close attention. From one position you see the relationship between the figures; from another, the remarkable density of individual watches and the histories they carry.
Hundreds of watches make up this sculpture.
But from across the room, what remains is something much simpler.
Two people choosing to hold one another.
What if the most valuable thing time gives us is each other?
MATERIALS
Hundreds of gifted watches, watch faces, straps, chains, metal and mixed media.
Every watch entered the work with a previous life already attached to it.
Some arrived worn and scratched. Some were broken. Some had stopped completely. A few continued ticking after becoming part of the sculpture.
I chose not to erase that history.
Through my practice of Circular Elevation, these individual objects are released from their original function while retaining the evidence of where they have been.
Together, they become something their original makers could never have anticipated: two human figures carrying hundreds of different measures of time.
PRESENTATION
Our Time is an original one-of-one freestanding contemporary assemblage sculpture.
It is constructed on an integrated black base, allowing the figures and dense watch-covered surfaces to remain visually dominant.
The sculpture is designed to be experienced from multiple viewpoints. Different faces, straps, chains and mechanisms appear as you move around it, making close viewing an important part of the work.
Personally constructed and finished in my West Auckland studio.
A signed Certificate of Authenticity is included.
No edition of the original sculpture will be produced.
DIMENSIONS
69 H × 39 W × 55 D cm
ACQUISITION
NZ$7,500
Original one-of-one sculpture.
PERFECT PLACEMENT
Our Time has enough sculptural presence to anchor a space without needing a wall behind it.
Its vertical form makes it particularly suited to an entranceway, considered living space, executive office, hospitality interior, gallery-style alcove or architectural foyer where it can be approached and viewed from more than one angle.
From a distance, the human relationship within the work remains dominant.
Closer viewing reveals the extraordinary density of individual watches and mechanisms across the surface.
That dual experience makes Our Time especially effective somewhere people naturally pass, pause and return to it.
Changing light also brings different metallic surfaces, watch faces and details forward throughout the day.
SEE THE ARTWORK
See Our Time in motion
Photographs can show the overall form, but they cannot completely capture the density of the surface or the number of individual discoveries held within it.
Watch the video to see Our Time from different angles and experience how the figures, watch faces, straps, chains and reflective surfaces change as you move around the sculpture.
Video in the images
PRIVATE STUDIO VIEWINGS
Buying art online doesn’t mean you have to buy it unseen.
I run MyShinyMadness as a studio-based urban gallery in West Auckland, and collectors are very welcome to arrange a private viewing before making a decision.
Seeing an artwork in person gives you the opportunity to experience its true scale, surface, colour and dimensionality — things a screen can never completely reproduce.
For Our Time in particular, viewing the sculpture in person reveals the extraordinary number of individual watches and details hidden across every side.
If you are further away, I am also very happy to provide additional photographs, close-up video, measurements or a personal video walkthrough of the artwork so you can feel confident before purchasing.
To arrange a private studio viewing or ask about this artwork:[YOUR EMAIL]
International collectors are equally welcome to get in touch to discuss the artwork, custom crating, insured shipping or any questions before purchasing.
COLLECTOR INFORMATION
Artwork: Our TimeArtist: Lisa Watkins | MyShinyMadnessType: Contemporary assemblage sculptureEdition: Original one-of-oneDimensions: 69 H × 39 W × 55 D cmAcquisition: NZ$7,500Presentation: Freestanding on integrated black baseCertificate: Signed Certificate of Authenticity includedStudio: West Auckland, Tāmaki Makaurau, New ZealandAvailability: Available for acquisition
Our Time was my first award-winning sculpture.
International collectors are welcome. Custom crating and insured international shipping can be arranged directly.
Art Leasing enquiries are also welcome for residential, corporate and hospitality spaces.
If Our Time keeps drawing you back, there may be a reason.
CONFIDENCE POINTS
Original one-of-one contemporary sculpture
Award-winning work
Created over approximately eighteen months
Hundreds of community-gifted watches incorporated into the sculpture
Personally constructed and finished by me
Integrated freestanding black base
Designed to reward viewing from multiple angles
Signed Certificate of Authenticity included
Private West Auckland studio viewing available
Additional photography and personal video walkthrough available on request
Auckland delivery by arrangement
Custom crating and insured international shipping available
Art Leasing enquiries welcome
