Hosu Lee graduated with a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) and is currently based in Seoul.
Hosu Lee (b. 1990) explores the underlying
essence of the space–time we inhabit through a wide range of media, including
kinetic art, sound, sculpture, and drawing. His work articulates, in
synesthetic and non-linear ways, the gaps inherent in the nature of time—those
that cannot be reached through objective quantification or bodily
perception—inviting viewers into realms beyond the surface of conscious
experience.
Hosu Lee’s artistic practice has evolved
around the ‘Pendulum Project,’ which he has developed since 2017. Originating
from an inquiry into the nonlinearity of space and time, the project unfolds
through sound, kinetic performance, painting, and sculpture, generating
synesthetic experiences that guide viewers toward a preconscious state.
The ‘Time Machine’ series, a central body
of work within this project, employs hypnotic motion and sound derived from
pendular movement. It begins with the question, “When was the moment we did not
yet know the concept of time?” From this point of departure, the artist turns
to the phenomenon of infantile amnesia—the stage at which most people lose not
only everyday memories of early childhood but also their experiential sense of
space and time.
Lee speculates that this condition may stem
from the loss of a mechanism capable of recalling embodied memories of space
and time. From this intuition, he began devising an apparatus that might revive
a time that can no longer be consciously remembered.
Hosu Lee,
The Symphony of Time Machine, 2018, Kinetic installation,
performance ©Hosu LeeThe first work in the ‘Time Machine’
series, developed from this line of inquiry, was inspired by the motion of a
swing often ridden in childhood and by the spatial memory of the playground. By
constructing and staging an architectural form that resonates with such
early-life experiences, Lee proposes the work as a catalyst for re-experiencing
time—not as a socially or culturally constructed concept, but as something
sensed in its essence.
Hosu Lee,
Time Machine II, 2023, Mixed media, 96x67x320 cm ©Hosu LeeFurthermore, the second ‘Time Machine’
work, Time Machine II (2023), began by linking the
difference between ancient forms of consciousness and contemporary
consciousness to the phenomenon of infantile amnesia. The artist draws attention
to Julian Jaynes’s argument in The Origin of Consciousness in the
Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind (1976), in which he proposes that
ancient human consciousness operated in a bicameral mode fundamentally
different from that of today.
According to Jaynes, there was once a clear
distinction within humans between the voices of gods and those of humans
themselves. However, with the development of civilization and the establishment
of writing and record-keeping, the voices of the gods gradually disappeared
from our inner world. In the wake of the collapse of the bicameral mind, what
emerged in its place was “consciousness” as we understand it
today—characterized by introspection and self-reflection.
The artist reflected on this transformation
through the lens of infantile amnesia. In other words, viewing the ancient
bicameral mind and the preconscious state of early childhood as points along a
single continuum, the artist created Time Machine II, a work
that reinterprets the ancient pyramid—an architecture imbued with such a
mentality—through a contemporary lens.
Within the column shaped like a pyramid, a
pendulum swings repeatedly, inducing an almost hypnotic sensation. Accompanying
this motion is a soundscape composed of indistinct, vibrating tones that seem
to emanate from within an unknown interior. These sounds were recorded by the
artist using a stethoscope, capturing and amplifying primordial internal bodily
sounds that remain imperceptible to our ordinary sensory system and beyond
conscious awareness.
The solo exhibition 《Space-Time Travel》, held at Windmill in
2023, centered on Time Machine II and brought together works
that destabilize the linear concept of space and time. The exhibition emerged
from the artist’s inquiry into how we might sense the relativity of time even
as we remain grounded in the routines of everyday life.
As a result, the works presented emerged as
a constellation of events unfolding at different rhythms and speeds, like
vibrating pendulums that circulate energy much as a heartbeat drives blood
through a living body. The multisensory, non-linear environment they generate
not only reawakens viewers’ perception of space and time as lived reality, but
also invites deeper ontological reflection.
And through his solo exhibition 《Time And Machine》 (2025) at the OCI Museum
of Art, Hosu Lee further expanded the long-running ‘Time Machine’ series by
incorporating the notion of place, disentangling “Time” and “Machine” into
distinct sites, segments, and conceptual frameworks.
As an outcome of this expanded inquiry, 《Time And Machine》 treats the entire
exhibition space as a single sculptural body. Whereas earlier works allowed
viewers to maintain a certain distance from individual sculptural objects, in
this exhibition the sculpture transforms into a situational environment,
drawing visitors directly into its interior.
The first work visitors encounter in the
exhibition, Time (2025), features a monumental pendulum with
a reflective surface that moves as it projects and occupies the surrounding
space. Meanwhile, after passing through a dark corridor—almost as if hypnotized
by the inexorable force of time—visitors arrive at Machine
(2025), a work that presents uncanny scenes in which the familiar and the
unfamiliar coexist.
The dark passageway that mediates between
the two functions as a threshold leading to experiences beyond ordinary sensory
systems, as well as the interstitial gap between Time and
Machine—the space that corresponds to the “And.”
Taking a closer look at
Machine inside the exhibition space, one finds that it
paradoxically contains sensations of the outside world. Utility poles, outdoor
air-conditioning units, compressors, storage containers, and surrounding “No Entry”
fences occupy the interior of the gallery as if it were a landscape from which
people have vanished, blurring the boundary between inside and outside.
Within the work, not only the boundary
between interior and exterior but also that between the artificial and the
natural becomes entangled through hybrid sculptural forms. Some elements appear
new, while others exist in a state of decay.
Those in between—artificial objects in the
process of oxidizing—reveal the inherent temporality of things, while
simultaneously being situated within natural processes. In doing so, the work
foregrounds the gradual dissolution of the boundary between the man-made and
the natural.
Installed alongside the work, a range of
sound systems relayed in real time the various operational noises emitted by
mechanical facilities. For instance, the machines’ primal sounds were released
as deep low frequencies through subwoofers, spread outward as flat tones
through horn speakers mounted on utility poles, or rendered via rotary speakers
as ultra-low infrastructural sounds beyond the threshold of human hearing.
Together, sounds across multiple registers filled the space in its entirety.
In 《Time And
Machine》, Hosu Lee widens the gap between the two words
that compose “Time Machine” and inserts a conjunction between them, suggesting
that time and machine do not exist as separate entities. Rather, it is the
motility of the machine that generates, transforms, and renders time
perceptible.
The machine’s constant movement between
inside and outside, essence and appearance, opens up unfamiliar temporalities,
dismantling the walls between dimensions and creating a space for reflection.
Situated within contemporary conditions marked by the absence of faith and the
uncertainty of existence, Lee’s practice proposes a new performative system — a
‘mechanical ritual’ — through which new sensorial orders and spiritual
protocols may emerge.
”How can we experience space and time
beyond the sensory boundaries of consciousness? What is the nature of time and
space? And how can we truly come to understand it?” (Hosu Lee, Artist’s Note)
Hosu Lee graduated with a BFA from the
School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) and is currently based in Seoul.
His solo exhibitions include 《Time And Machine》 (OCI Museum of Art, Seoul, 2025), 《Space-Time
Travel》 (Windmill, Seoul, 2023), and 《On the Verge of Consciousness》 (Greenpoint
Gallery, Brooklyn, USA, 2021).
He has also participated in numerous group
exhibitions, including 《We May Be Separated Like
Island, But》 (Daegu Art Factory, Daegu, 2024), 《Sonic Arts Biennale》 (Het HEM, Netherlands,
2024), 《National Juried Show》
(First Street Gallery, New York, USA, 2022), 《Portraiture:
Photography Now》 (Black Box Gallery, Portland, USA,
2020), and 《Data Corpse》
(Chelsea College of Arts, London, 2018).
Lee was selected as a 2025 OCI YOUNG
CREATIVES artist and a 2025 ARKO DAY “Artist Lounge” participant. In 2020, he
received the ‘Emerging Artist Prize’ hosted by Greenpoint Gallery.
