'Light & Time' by Daniel Arsham is a horological land art made of ice and snow

And you run, and you run to catch up with the sun but it's sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in a relative way but you're older
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death

Pink Floyd in their much-beloved track Time tried to encapsulate how hours slip into days and years, without any of us truly realising until it is too late. Time. Nature’s heartbeat. A meditation on morality. Infinite, yet never enough. Many have tried to slow it down, describe its enigma, control it, and scientifically decode it, but it has always shied away from our grasp—mischievous and God-like. Throughout history, we have strained to inch closer to it—from Salvador Dali’s Surrealist masterpiece, The Persistence of Memory (Clocks) to the blooming luxury industry of horology and monumental architectural sundials, humans have remained fascinated, and flummoxed, perpetually racing against time.

Famed luxury Swiss watchmaker Hublot announced Daniel Arsham as its new ambassador, with a compelling piece of temporary land art. Aptly titled Light & Time, the work is a Hublot-inspired 20-metre sundial resting in the shadows of the Matterhorn mountain, radiating in the snowscape of the Swiss mountain resort of Zermatt, the most recognisable peak in the Swiss Alps. Arsham is an American contemporary artist who has explored the concept of time throughout his oeuvre, particularly through his Connecting Time series of works and his iconic Hourglass. His 'iciest' piece to date, Light & Time, installed at a height of 2,583 metres, started the clock on his new collaboration with Hublot, celebrating the eternal link between watchmaking, art, and craft, and bearing unmistakable elements of a classic Hublot watch design.

The ephemeral horological installation in Switzerland employs natural elements 'to merge the roots of timekeeping with the craftsmanship in land art.' Swathed in white to harmonise with the natural landscape, the functioning outdoor timekeeping installation bases itself on the shadows cast by a tall, pure-white, quartz crystal-shaped obelisk, placed centrally on a levelled plate of snow with a set of six arches around the edges. As the sun journeys through the day, the shadow cast by this central pointer indicates the time in the raked snow.

“Arsham has blended form and function, creating the sundial out of the natural elements in the Swiss Alps. In this way, snow and light are combined to connect his own crystalised universe with the heritage and history within Hublot’s Swiss watchmaking craft. The sundial will echo Hublot’s design language, integrating familiar cues such as the famous screws that hold the Big Bang’s bezel in place. The installation also comes with a twist: it will only be visible from the top of the mountain. To view it, art lovers will have to use Zermatt’s ski lifts,” shares Hublot.   

Based in Nyon, the Swiss watch manufacturer also relays how Zermatt presented itself as a natural location to explore the collaboration with Arsham. “It’s a Hublot town! The wood-panelled, chalet-style Hublot Boutique Zermatt sets the tone, while the resort carries Hublot signage and keeps time with Hublot clocks. Visitors use the Hublot-Express high-speed chairlift that climbs 954 metres up the mountain to the top station. On four occasions since 2017, Hublot has introduced limited-edition watches celebrating the loyal bond that ties Hublot and Zermatt together,” they explain.

Ricardo Guadalupe, CEO of Hublot expressed his love for Arsham by saying, “We have been hoping this day would come! Daniel Arsham is one of the most exciting creative talents working in contemporary art today, and we are so excited to welcome him into the Hublot Family and call him a Hublot Ambassador. His bold, audacious, groundbreaking portfolio of work is a perfect match for Hublot and our approach to watch creation: first, unique, different. We have no doubt this will become a hugely productive collaboration and we can’t wait to explore it further with Daniel and with Hublot and art fans.”

Founded in 1980, Hublot, for its first-ever timepiece, combined gold with a rubber strap in a case with a design inspired by a ship’s porthole (hublot in French). The company’s deep-rooted network within the world of art isn’t new—in 2021, the company celebrated 10 years of 'Hublot Loves Art.’ Arsham joins the Hublot Family of Ambassadors from the worlds of art and music, alongside luminaries such as Richard Orlinski, Takashi Murakami, Maxime Plescia-Buchi, Lang Lang, and Samuel Ross.  

With a practice spanning across fine art, painting, sculpture, architecture, installation, performance, and film, Arsham matches the horologer’s ground-breaking, high-quality approach to watchmaking, summed up in its philosophy of 'Be First, Unique, and Different' with Light & Time. His work has come to be known for what commentators have described as a 'mythical contemporary archaeology,' where he takes familiar forms to erode or reform them. 

In an exclusive interview with STIR, the New-York based American artist recounted his experience of creating Light & Time, the large-scale installation’s intended ephemerality, and his collaboration with Hublot.  

Jincy Iype: Your sculptural land art at Zermatt is inspired by a Hublot-inspired sundial. How did you collaborate with the Swiss watchmaker, responding to the core concept and inspiration of Light & Time?

Daniel Arsham: I visited the Hublot factory, which is about two and a half hours from Zermatt. I started to think about what could be an appropriate art installation that wouldn’t be too specific, that would be about time. I have always been fascinated with sundials or sun clocks. We didn’t know if it would be winter or summer but given the connection with Hublot in Switzerland and this region, we started developing the idea to create a sun clock that would be made out of materials that are ephemeral.

Especially after visiting the factory in Nyon at Hublot, this investigation of materials was natural, particularly being enamoured with this sapphire, crystal material that they use in a lot of their time-keeping devices which heavily relates to the materiality in my own work. It was about finding ways to combine those two endeavours together. When you see the installation, it’s made of ice and snow. Not only is it this thing that tells time and captures time, but it will also disappear and be erased by it.

In any of these collaborations, it’s also about the people and whether I think they are going to actually go with me to the far end of what I am trying to do. The team has been extremely positive and willing to experiment, and truly try things that they haven’t before. I have done a lot of sculptural works around clocks and hourglasses and so, what I have designed is a massive 50-foot diameter sundial which is created in the snow in Zermatt in the mountains. The ice changes dramatically throughout the day. It catches like the sapphire of the watches, refracting light as you move through it.

Jincy: Was there a specific 'brief' shared with you by Hublot? What determined the scale of the public installation and why was this location chosen to debut it?

Daniel: Our first discussion with Ricardo Guadalupe and the team at Hublot was—'Let’s make something that really is different, that hasn’t been done.’ When I came to the factory, I saw these incredible capabilities that they possess, all this new technology with laser sintered metal and obviously the sapphire technology. I thought—'What could I do with all those tools?’ It was the kind of thing where it took time to not only figure out what I wanted to do but get to Geneva into the factory and understand their capabilities, just see it in fullness and understand it. I went to Nyon about a year ago, and have since been working on concepts. After my visit, I did really know exactly what I wanted to make so that took a minute.

Physically, the temporary installation capture(s) something of how fleeting time can feel, but it will also be lasting, creating a memory that transcends the passing of the seconds, minutes, hours and days in all those who make the journey up the mountain to see it. – Daniel Arsham

(As for the location), Carl who works with me in the studio went hiking in Zermatt that summer and he said it would be amazing if we were to do something in that specific location. We didn’t know if it was going to be in the winter or summer, but we obviously wanted to emphasise the connection with Hublot in Switzerland and this region.

Jincy: How does the sundial echo Hublot’s design language and watchmaking legacy?

Daniel: I am trying to use some of the cues from Hublot’s design language, the screws with the two pins, for instance. It’s a subtle gesture. I am using a couple of different types of lines to create this ‘almost’ pattern, on the surface of the snow which will catch shadows in a certain way. So, the points on the exterior of the sundial are actually designed to look like the screws in the face of the watch, it looks like a natural form.

I have been watching Hublot and the projects it has supported in the contemporary art space with great interest for many years and admired its audacious approach to watchmaking, design and craft. The Art of Fusion remains one of the smartest projects in watchmaking. I love how Hublot crafts ideas, influences and materials together to create unique, defining forms. It is of course a special moment joining the Hublot Family and I was super curious to execute the Hublot x Daniel Arsham sundial project in Zermatt. Physically, the temporary installation will capture something of how fleeting time can feel, but it will also be lasting, creating a memory that transcends the passing of the seconds, minutes, hours and days in all those who make the journey up the mountain to see it.

Jincy: What were some of the challenges you faced while creating the installation, and what was your favourite part of it?

Daniel: There was a little experimentation as we haven’t done anything like this before. I have never worked with these materials, so a little bit of it was trial and error. We worked with a team that does a lot of the grooming on the mountain so they are very familiar with it. It was a bit of a collaboration with the snow-making team here, a fantastic collaborative exercise.

Jincy: How do you ensure the elements of ice from melting? Could you also elaborate on the chosen materiality and colour palette and how it informs the elements of the artwork?

Daniel: It’s this extremely large, ancient time-keeping device and the markings of it are in many ways temporary, counter to the idea of a watch as we think of as more permanent. The entire site-specific artwork disappears in spring, evocative of time’s ephemeral nature. We started developing the idea to create a sun clock that would be made out of materials that are ephemeral, it’s made out of ice and snow. Not only is this thing that tells time and captures time, but it will also disappear and be erased by it.

When you look at a piece of glass, normally it’s transparent—you see right through it. But when you turn it on edge, you have this green cue to it and this is actually due to flaws, and imperfections so it’s this notion of perspective: the way you are looking at something can influence not only the way that it looks but how you perceive it.

Jincy: Could you describe how the interactive installation is experienced?

Daniel: It’s the kind of thing you wouldn’t be able to see unless you are up in the mountains looking down into this little valley. There are going to be two elements of experiencing that, one is from the top of the mountain looking down onto it from a great distance and the other is walking directly around it where you’ll see the obelisk in the centre which is in the shape of a crystal and you’ll see the pattern in the snow. It’s still going to be an experience either way because you will need to understand the nature of what it’s supposed to be.

The sighting of the work, it’s both in relation to the Matterhorn, and the Zermatt sign where everyone takes pictures but also you can see it from the Gondola as you ski down. So there are different perspectives, it’s something you have to walk around in order to experience.

Jincy: What is your creative philosophy? What is NEXT for you?

Daniel: A lot of the work that I make is focused on a kind of investigation of time. All these archaeological works, the study of the way we perceive time through objects, and this fictional archaeological series I have been working on objects from our present day are projected into the future through a material transformation. We are looking at a computer, a phone, a basketball, or a contemporary object as if we are viewing it in the future. It’s really about investigating our perception of time, how we quantify it, how we process it, and how we locate ourselves within it.

I travel a lot. I typically have more ideas in my notebook of things to make than I am able to do. Often times I am working on things that won’t be seen for a year or more. I never run out of things (laughs).