The Waiting Machine (6/12 SOLO)
Yang Jie
“The Waiting Machine” explores the moments and experience of time when we are kept in waiting. Waiting reflects a peculiar moment of human experience, in situations such as taking our place in the queue, waiting to be called. Under these situations, waiting transforms time into an emotional display controlled by how patiently or impatiently we wait. The more you think about it – just like the common experience of “a watched pot never boils”- the bigger waiting appears. Waiting ultimately makes us surrender our position at the centre of attention, accepting a place determined solely by the time of joining.
“The Waiting Machine” consists of a collection of kinetic assemblages built out of mementos and found everyday objects. As a whole, it performs as a machine waiting for its human to interact with. It is in itself a built-in clock: the machine counts the moments and interactions with its person, turning the act of waiting into the motive force of the installation. Audiences are encouraged to interact with /operate “The Waiting Machine”. Through such engagement, the exhibition leads us to explore how we can deal with time and meaning, and how this relates to the society in which we live.
“The Waiting Machine” is the sixth project of the exhibition series, “12 Solo” of Comma Space 逗号空间.
Exhibition:10-18 October 2020 / Interactive installation
Artist tours: 11th and 18th October 2020, 3 and 4pm
“The Waiting Machine” is the sixth project of the exhibition series, “12 Solo” of Comma Space 逗号空间.
Artist: Yang Jie is interested in the way things are put together: furniture, objects, machines, stories and ideas. Drawing from his engineering background, his work consists mainly of mechanical objects that interact with their users and/or their surroundings (or catastrophically fail to). He is particularly fascinated by how things made by people often take on lives beyond their makers’ intentions.
His projects include: Sensory Anchors (2019), an installation of kinetic sound sculptures commissioned by Esplanade; Instant Citizen (2016), a collaboration with an architectural designer Fiona Tan, creating an installation of furniture and devices which challenge the way we ordinarily use things; the large scale installation ’Can I lend you my Umbrella?’ (2011), a collaboration with video and performance artist, Ezzam Rahman; The Photographer, The Executioner’s Assistant (2014), at Gillman Barracks, as well as Postcards from Earth (2011), with the Black Baroque Committee at The Objectifs, Singapore. He has also been actively involved with community art projects with the People’s Association, creating Dining As Theatre (2018), a kinetic installation and performance with a twist for the community to participate in.
Curator: Dr. Wang Ruobing is an artist and curator who currently teaches at the LASALLE College of the Arts. https://www.lasalle.edu.sg/about/academics/wang-ruobing