Growing relentlessly in the mind of Eric Freitas lies a realm of dark mechanical curiosities and horological contradictions. In this world gears are harvested and mechanisms are alive with the organic repetitions of nature’s machine. Balancing carefully between creative conception and logical execution, this world would slowly be brought to life. In 2004 Eric began to study the dying craft of clockmaking so that his ideas could be executed, and it would become apparent that even an instrument as logical and precise as a clock could be compromised by ungoverned subconscious thought.

The first collection of twisted timepieces consisted of rusted, decayed and intricately cut steel, but utilized commercial clock motors. The work hung at a one-night show in downtown Detroit and garnered a positive response; half the work sold. Making the gears by hand seemed quite inconceivable at the time, but was the unavoidable next step. With a couple of books ordered from England and a couple of machines discarded from an auto factory, he began working on his first fully mechanical weight driven clock. Unavailable tools had to be made, along with lots of mistakes. Over a year later, his first piece had a pulse.

With every project thereafter, the boundaries of horology are tested to make way for a style never seen in this very traditional world. The mechanical is always structured around the visual rather than changing the drawings to match the the gears. After countless hours of precise work, the immediacy and essence of the initial sketch is still prevalent when the finished work makes its first tick.

Eric Freitas grew up on a wooded dirt road near the small village of Chelsea MI. He received a BFA in 1999 from the College for Creative Studies in Detroit. He currently lives in Royal Oak Michigan, where he slowly works away in his humble workshop.