Through her majestic and grandiose representations of some of the most remote places on the planet, the artist bears witness to the impact of changing landscapes. She travels the world, camera at the ready, collecting images and memories that she then reproduces in her large-format pastel works on paper, which are exhibited in museums and galleries around the world. And, in this way, she displays a visionary, sensitive and demanding mentality that is reflected in her artistic approach, in her expressive terrain. A mentality that Vacheron Constantin shares.
That is why the American creator and also explorer Zaria Forman and the oldest watchmaking Manufacture in the world have strengthened ties with “One of very few”, the project with which, since 2018, Vacheron Constantin brings together personalities whose presence in the world reflects their most appreciated values. And Zaria Forman is one of them.
The artist gives a face to the Overseas collection, whose campaign was carried out in Iceland and thus joins the circle of talents that also includes the musician Benjamin Clementine, the designer Ora Ito, the photographer and explorer Cory Richards and the designer of Yiqing Yin Haute Couture.
“The ability to move, to witness the natural world, to attend to detail and beauty: these are the traits of Vacheron Constantin that I admire. We share the same passion for the world around us and the same interest in the passage of time and everything that entails,” details Zaria Forman, who highlights the similarities between his work and that of the watchmaking Manufacture founded in 1755.
“Time is the key element in both Vacheron Constantin's work and my own. The eternity it takes for a glacier to form, the precise moment in which I perceive the brightness of the sun's rays hitting the side of an iceberg, the fraction of a second in which I capture it in a photo, the many weeks or months I spend exploring that moment in all its details to complete a painting, the time it takes for the ice to melt. I want viewers to consider the future by looking through the prism of the history that lives within the glacial remains. I want to contribute to preserving beauty, as Vacheron Constantin does with its craftsmen, its know-how, heritage and watchmaking culture. “We both participate in a process of creation and preservation,” he celebrates.
The Overseas collection evokes exploration and openness to the world. “I am usually in a state of constant admiration in my journeys through landscapes. That is what I want to express, in all its authenticity. The fragility of ice contrasts with the reliability of an Overseas watch. Both mark time, and their complexities, excellence and beauty run in parallel,” details the artist, who, on the occasion of filming the campaign, collected materials for a new series of unique works of art called Fellsfjara, Iceland. Work No. 3 is intended for Vacheron Constantin.
“The ice of Fellsfjara, Iceland, which I visited in September 2021, tells the story of the past and our future. I was captivated by a phenomenon I saw there, through the ice. Chunks of recently broken and compressed glacial ice had been washed up on a black sand beach. The white-crested waves broke against the shore and, if you looked through the ice, the white foam of the ocean was transformed into a light dance, transmuted by the ice. The light passed through the frozen layers, surrounding air bubbles, perhaps from ancient times, trapped inside the ice when it solidified for the first time,” he describes. “This new body of work, including the painting for Vacheron Constantin, will explore this phenomenon in great detail, magnifying the textures and surfaces of ice in a way I have never attempted before in my work,” he says.
Vacheron Constantin faithfully perpetuates a proud heritage of watchmaking excellence and sophisticated style through generations of master craftsmen who create watches with a unique technical and aesthetic code.
This is how it brings to life an unparalleled heritage and a strong spirit of innovation, through its collections. A legacy that is now displayed in the Less'Ential exhibition, which brings together its representative pieces of the stylistic research to which the House is dedicated and which have been selected from the approximately 1,600 watches that make up Vacheron Constantin's private collection.
Consisting of pocket watches and bracelet models produced by the Manufacture until the second half of the 20th century, the exhibition constitutes a clear manifestation of the desire to subject mechanical imperatives to the neatness of the design and the legibility of the functions.
A form of horological minimalism that has emerged with style and elegance throughout successive eras and ages, exemplifying the ability to adapt to all styles and materials.
Regardless of whether they are classic visualizations or those that are out of the ordinary, such as jumping hours, the design remains the same: to achieve beauty through simplicity, to once again focus on Less'Ential. For this reason, the exhibition includes everything from his two-tone pocket watch in yellow gold and rose gold, with a black lacquered dial, from 1931, to his Harmony watches in steel and yellow gold, with a gold dial, dating from 1986.
In between, other unique pieces such as the round-shaped Jubilee wristwatch, made of 18-karat yellow gold, with manual winding and a black dial with 3 golden Arabic numerals, from the year 1936; the “one-minute tourbillon” pocket watch, made of yellow gold, with a small seconds hand and a white enamel dial, from 1943; or the platinum wristwatch, with a matte gray dial and diamond setting from 1953.
