James Borden’s sculptural wooden clocks
James Borden was born and raised in Rockford, Illinois. He graduated from Dana College in 1980 with a Bachelor of Arts degree and a major in Humanities. He graduated from Wartburg Theological Seminary in 1987 with a Master of Divinity Degree. James currently lives in Zumbrota, Minnesota with his wife, Barbara Kopperud, Daughter, Irina, and son, Alex. In a restored 1880’s barn he works fulltime making all-wood kinetic sculptures called Timeshapes. Timeshapes are essentially mechanical weight-driven or spring-driven clocks, every part of which has been designed and built by James Borden. The pendulums and escapements are also of the artist’s own design. Timeshapes exhibit a wide, graceful motion and soft, woody, clicking sounds which can be mesmerizing and relaxing to watch and hear. In his Timeshapes James Borden presents a different vision of the passage of time: Less frenetic and urgent than the normal ticking of a clock; slower paced; peaceful; playful; something easier to live with.
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