Mixed media light installation, 2022. Two objects
Time is the most intimate and most elusive of human experiences. We measure it constantly – in seconds, in seasons, in lifetimes – yet it remains fundamentally resistant to definition. When you attempt to discuss time in the context of the universe, a radical simplification becomes necessary: you isolate part of the universe, call it your clock, and time becomes nothing more than the relationship between that clock and everything else. The universe itself has no clock.
The Cosmic Time series is a two-object light installation that places this philosophical proposition at the centre of a physical and perceptual experience. Each object approaches the question of time from a distinct angle – one through language and projection, one through light and proximity – together forming a meditation on time as a cosmic relationship, a temporal illusion, and an embodied presence.
Cosmic Time: Object 1 – Time is… Time is not…
Object 1 is a wall-mounted light sculpture that functions as a clock – and simultaneously questions what a clock can ever tell us. Custom generative software written in C++ drives a projection over the object’s surface, displaying chronological time while cycling through philosophical propositions about its nature. Every minute, a new question appears. Every minute, a new answer dissolves it.
The work operates in a loop that is both precise and random. The time is always accurate. The answer is always different. The repetition is linear, but the meaning shifts continuously – time as factual measurement and time as open question, held together in the same object simultaneously.
What time is it?
It is exactly the time you think it is.
What is time?
No one has ever agreed.
Cosmic Time: Object 2 – Time is an illusion
Object 2 removes the clock entirely. There is no chronological display, no numerical reference, no fixed measurement. Instead, the object responds to the viewer’s presence – activating specific light-changing patterns depending on their distance from the artwork. Move closer and the light shifts. Step back, and it changes again. The work exists in relationship to the body, not to any external timekeeper.
This is time as a purely temporal and perceptual experience: distorted, warped, dependent on position and presence rather than measurement. The infinite play of light, colour and reflection creates an environment in which the question of duration becomes genuinely uncertain. Has a minute passed? Five? The work does not say.
Together, the two objects propose that time is both the most measurable and the most unmeasurable aspect of existence – a fact that science and philosophy have circled for centuries without resolution. The Cosmic Time series does not resolve it either. It simply makes the question visible and beautiful.
Exhibitions
- 2023, Great Sounds Seek Silence, St. James’ Hatcham Church, London SE14
- 2022, Ephemerence, Bargehouse, Oxo Tower Wharf, London SE1
Technical specifications
| Materials | Wood, resin, digital, LED, projection mapping |
| Dimensions | 55W x 55H x 28D cm per object |
| Weight | 15kg per object |
| Lights | IP65 RGB LED, MAX7219 |
| Maximum brightness | 2000 lumens |
| Input voltage | DC 5V |
| Finish | White, grey, black paint with sparkles |
| Edition | One-of-a-kind, two objects |