HH Magazine

Presenting Art Piece 1 – a co-creation in progress by Robert Greubel and Stephen Forsey with Willard Wigan – at the Shanghai Contemporary Art Fair.

Greubel Forsey founders Robert Greubel and Stephen Forsey will be at the Shanghai Contemporary Art Fair on September 6th, 2012 to present Art Piece 1, their first artistic co-creation that they are making with world-renowned micro-sculptor Willard Wigan. This work in progress will also be presented in Greubel Forsey’s Time Art Gallery^GF at Bund18 in Shanghai from September 7th to 9th.

After learning of Willard Wigan’s incredible nano-sculptures five years ago, Robert Greubel and Stephen Forsey decided to ask the artist if he would be interested in collaborating with them on a long-term project. The fruits of this will take the form of a co-creation combining the respective universes of Robert Greubel, Stephen Forsey and Willard Wigan, each one imbuing the creation with their own miniaturist language. The objective is to produce a unique piece previously unimaginable in the field of art.

For Art Piece 1, Robert Greubel and Stephen Forsey will create a rotating hemispherical structure featuring several micro-sculptures, which will be easily observable through specially created optics. The ensemble will be a veritable tour de force in terms of innovation, architecture and technical complexity.

Art Piece 1 will be unveiled during the 2013 Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH) in its advanced state.

Working with a scalpel and a microscope, Willard Wigan works with unusual materials, like spider web, legs of flies, gold and Kevlar. Working at this extreme nano level necessitates extreme concentration and requires a rigorous physical discipline. To create his art Wigan controls and slows his breath to enter into a kind of trance that allows him to sculpt between beats of his heart. Such is the beauty and wonder of Wigan’s work that in 2007, he was honoured by HM. Queen Elizabeth II with an MBE for his services to art.

Willard Wigan

The work of Willard Wigan (born in 1957) is commonly placed in the eye of a needle, or on the head of a pin. Once completed, his work measures only a few micro millimetres, (less than 1/13th of the size of a grain of rice). The work can only be viewed using a high powered microscope. Often working with custom made tools and natural objects such as using the hairs off dead flies as paintbrushes; Wigan reinterprets iconic images from popular culture, the animal kingdom and picturesque scenes. For example, Michelangelo’s David, The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci, Prince Charles, the boxer Mike Tyson, Marylin Monroe, Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland. ■

Press release

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