Kyu Sang Lee

The Sound of Light: Sequences I-III
2019
Wood, glass, stainless steel, incandescent light bulbs & electronics.
64.5 x 88.4 cm [each]
Collaboration with Martin Wilson
Temporary loan to Zeitz MOCAA, South Africa.

Embedded music sequences:

Sequence l [52:46]
G. Holst "The Planets, Op. 32" - H. v. Karajan & Berliner Philharmoniker (1980)

Sequence II[76:21]
H. Birtwistle "The Triumph of Time" - P. Boulez & BBC Symphony Orchestra (1975) [00:00 - 27:46]
P. Zinovieff & H. Birtwistle "Chronometer '71" (1971) [27:46 - 52:10]
H. Birtwistle "Deep Time" - D. Barenboim & Staatskapelle Berlin (2017) [52:10 - 76:21]

Sequence III [63:25]
W. A. Mozart "Requiem in D minor, K. 626" - K. Böhm & Wiener Philharmoniker (1971)

The Sound of Light: Sequences I-III (2019) is a light/sculptural triptych that attempts to translate music from the audio domain into the visual. Like white light passing through a prism, the musical spectrum is separated into its individual tones and presented as a rhythmically-encoded sequence of light and shadow.

Both sound and light are inseparable from the dimension of time: not only because they are experienced as signals that vary over time, but also because they propagate through space at a finite speed. Therefore, within the artwork they act as catalysts for considering humanity’s own relationship to time; our beginnings and ends, and our existence and impermanence.

The music programmed into the artwork was also chosen to signify the conceptual passage of time: the past, the present, and the future. However, since they play simultaneously and cyclically, this implied chronology exists separately from the lived experience of the viewer, and the ticking of the metronomic timers. In this way these various conceptions of time collapse in an ironic interplay of meaning. At once infinite and fleeting; and metaphysical and mundane.