fluoro Giveaway: Swatch X Ian Davenport Limited Edition Watch

In a continuation of our revue of Swatch’s ongoing involvement in the Venice Biennale, fluoro is giving away the latest addition to the timeless watchmaker’s Art Special series – WIDE ACRES OF TIME, a piece created in collaboration with UK abstract artist, Ian Davenport.

For over 33 years, the iconic and avant-garde watchmaker Swatch has worked closely with a cohort of the world’s leading creatives to create an incomparable collection of design-forward wristwear.

Previous partnerships have included the likes of French illustrator Julien Pacaud, a digital experimentalist whose collages rework existing imagery into surrealist environments; eclectic eccentricity from Vivienne Westwood; Alfred Hofkunst’s sculptural wearables; and Italian graphic designer Lorenzo Petrantoni, whose inspiration is drawn from the 1800s and reinvigorated with 21st century resonance.

And now it’s the turn of artist Ian Davenport.

Renowned for his vibrant conceptual pieces, which are created by exploring the nature of paint by pouring and manipulating its natural qualities, Davenport’s work nods to that of abstract expressionists Sam Francis and Jackson Pollock, modernising the drip technique so favoured by his predecessors for a contemporary environment and taste.

While his commercial work, international exhibitions and involvement in the seminal Young British Artists exhibition all certainly elevated Davenport’s reputation and skill to critical acclaim, it is his intriguing ability to use colour to infiltrate environments that forms a most unique forte. Poured Lines, for example, his 48-metre technicolour commissioned by Southwark Council back in 2006, has transformed a dank underpass into the home of one of the largest and widely visited pieces of public art in the country.

The artist’s latest project, delivered in collaboration with Swatch, has conceived Giardini Colourfall, a monumental installation for the Swatch Pavilion at The Venice Biennale 2017. Extending over a 3.8 x 14-metre aluminum panel, Giardini Colourfall is a psychadelic palette of more than 1,000 painstakingly paralleled colours running in rivulets to the panel’s base, where they pool together in a riotous collision of colour.

In contrast, WIDE ACRES OF TIME, the Davenport-designed watch and the latest addition to the Swatch Art Special collection, is the smallest canvas the artist has ever worked on. And the number of watches available is almost just as small, with only 1,966 limited editions of the watch available worldwide.

The design of WIDE ACRES OF TIME imitates the rivers of colour heralded by Gardini Colourfall, with the same vibrant stripes running along the strap, before melting away into a chromatic vortex at the heart of the watch. Encased in a specially designed package, the timepiece is accompanied by an emotive poem, written by none other than Davenport’s brother, Philip, as the company continues on its mission to spread the ‘Swatch loves art’ message, by connecting with all corners of the arts world to inspire and animate a unique creative dialogue.

Artists, fashion designers, musicians, poets, composers. All have their part to play in contributing new popular culture references within Swatch’s compelling story, creating accessories which double as canvases for creative expression.

This giveaway has now concluded. For our current giveaway click here. 

www.swatch.com

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