"All my life my parents have been collectors," says Leonie Lacouette. "Not of anything specific; they're just into amassing stuff." Clearly the penchant for clutter with which she grew up influenced her early clocks; they often featured jumbles of found objects exploding out of cast ceramic heads. Lacouette still likes putting together these narrative free-associative pieces because she finds a playfulness there. However, these days she finds herself moving toward a more basic geometry. Her recent clocks are little more than the construction and combination of shapes (squares, circles, rectangles, triangles) made primarily out of sheet copper and various metal leafs which, she says, posses an inherent warmth. Though materials and forms may vary, the feeling of assemblage -- of different elements pieced together, applied and layered -- is ever present. What has been traded is a sense of agitation and action for that of quietude and serenity.

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