In the series deceptive physicality, veridical shadows, Daniel de Paula once again uses juxtaposition as a strategy to reveal hidden symbology embedded into the materials he appropriates. For each work in this series, the artist has collected and set together two commonly used templates for watch advertisements. While the images on the right allude to the natural shadows cast by ancient solar watches, the ones on the left use geomorphological and mineral imagery to construct a sense of trust, precision and immutability. Both, nevertheless, demonstrate how the abstract time of capital societies (for which the status of high-priced watches is very symbolic) has dominated our bodies, and conscience, over what used to be a more nature-driven life, where the time of seasons, crops, day and night would guide us - not the abstract time of work schedules and global time-zones.
By using images of highly seductive publicity to sell his own work and ideas, the artist also acknowledges his position as a producer of valuable objects and ironically uses these forces for his own advertisement.