Untitled Document

September 10, 2001

Melies Has No Time to Waste
Nancy A. Ruhling
STAFF WRITER

Long Island City craftsman blends art, utility in unusual timepieces

Melies has lost all track of time. Wait just a New York minute here. How can that be?

He's wearing three watches on each arm, and the dozen clocks in the Long Island City studio where he designs his art watches and clock sculptures are talking tick-tock to each other. Time is ticking away, and Melies is making use of every minute, but he's not watching the clock or his half dozen wristwatches, for that matter. Art Lasts, Life Is Brief. That was the title of his first timepiece, a seconds- meter-machine that he made at age 14. "Time moves differently, it is different for everyone," says the artist, who uses a single moniker. "And the way it moves for me, it is so different than for other people. For me, time goes much slower." Melies' other clock sculptures, which are made of junkyard objects he finds in the rail yard below his studio, also stop the conventional idea of time dead in its tracks. They show the time accurately, but their faces, made of rusted paint cans and metal barrels, show the ravages of time.

"Clocks and watches are everywhere. My pieces are not intended to be just another clock," he says. "What I try to do is an art piece that at the same time shows the time, but this is almost incidental because you can see the time anywhere."

To further fuse the idea of art and time, Melies has designed a collection of limited-edition men's and women's wristwatches that are sold at about 400 museum shops and art galleries around the country, including that of the American Craft Museum in Manhattan.

"Melies' eye can turn an ordinary piece of artwork into something extraordinary," says Manhattan artist Marcia Gygli King, who Melies cites as one of the New Yorkers who inspired him.

The Watchcraft watches, which are made of brass, copper, sterling silver and titanium, are finished and assembled by seven craftsmen in Melies' studio in the Apple Tag and Label building. Some of the watches are antiqued, and others do not have protective finishes on the metals "to reinforce the idea of time passing," Melies says. "Time passes, it goes on for the watch itself, too, and it changes, and the person who wears it ages, and the watch is aging, too."

Melies, 40, a native of Uruguay who came to New York while on his honeymoon a decade ago and was so charmed by the romance of the city that he and his bride stayed permanently, travels the world for ideas for his designs.
Of course, sometimes Melies finds inspiration right on his own rooftop. He scans the Manhattan skyline then gazes downward to his favorite view: the rail lines that are filled with the rusty paint cans, barrels and vintage 1980s graffiti spray-paint cans that he uses to create his artworks. "See that tank over there? That's going to be a future clock," he says. "And that metal barrel? I'm leaving it there until it rusts some more."

As he says this, a Long Island Rail Road train passes below, and the No. 7 train screeches by. He doesn't need to check any of his wristwatches or his clocks, because today the trains are running on time.