There’s a good chance that more people would ‘get’ and maybe even learn to appreciate art if it did something more practical for them. Van Gogh’s Starry Night could serve as a nightlight, for example, and Seurat’s A Sunday Afternoon could double as an air freshener, just like DaVinci’s Mona Lisa is now a functional wall clock.
Originally designed by Constantin Boym back in 1987 as an art piece itself, this updated version of his renaissance clock is now just $US35 — cheap enough for anyone to hang on their walls. The clock’s shorter black hand counts off the hours, while the longer minute hand features a slice of the Mona Lisa’s face so that at the top of every hour the famous painting becomes whole again. At noon and midnight, with the hour hand hidden, you might actually fool someone into thinking it’s a genuine copy of the original masterpiece. [Kikkerland]