Time And Machine — Hosu Lee

Solo ≪Time And Machine≫
Place: OCI Museum, Seoul, South Korea
Date: 4/10/2025 - 5/25/2025
Format: site-specific installation

This solo exhibition Time And Machine extends my long-term project Time Machine, a series of singular kinetic/sonic sculptures. The new iteration is divided into three territories suggested by the title: Time, And, Machine. In this exhibition, the sculptural body of the earlier series has disappeared, while its parasitic components merge with the physical structure of the museum, transforming it into a giant clock that generates a nonlinear sense of space and time.

Time is a kinetic installation that performs the motion of a pendulum every 30 minutes by releasing bursts of compressed air. The sound and movement of this large mass inform the entire building of each interval of time, while evoking an uncanny sense of temporal self-awareness. This kinetic system, familiar to our quotidian experience of measurable time, produces the illusion of regular and predictable clockwork, the rhythm to which our modern society adjusts.

Machine is a mechanical installation, hidden behind the wall of the moving pendulum. Often overlooked in daily life, it is the place where power and energy are generated and controlled to sustain the infrastructure of modern buildings and cities. Pneumatic system, electronics, and a utility pole operate here as an autonomous facility, continuously supplying kinetic energy to the pendulum.

Our sense of time dissolves in this place, entangled with complex relations among non-human components. Their sound and vibrations—a mixture of mechanical and insect-like noise—reverberate within the space, occasionally producing sonic feedback via the installed audio equipment. The arbitrary soundscape of Machine unfolds spacetime as a nonlinear entanglement lying beneath the surface.

Finally, And designates the set of loopholes that link Time and Machine throughout the exhibition. Pneumatic pipelines run through these passages, between curtains and walls, carrying high-pressure compressed air. The audience moves through this alley of connections, traversing space and time, as if slipping into a rabbit hole.

Artist: Hosu Lee
Writer: Jiyeon Lee
Installation: Hansoo Noh
Assistant: Minseok Yang
Sound Advisor: Unknown Kim
Photo: Seokwoo Song
Video: Gwanhee Yoon

OCI Curator: Sohyun Baek
Funded and Organized by OCI Museum

Sculpting Between Time and Machine.pdf