Gazing at the Hands of a Broken Clock

Various kinds of drawing machines have been created as works of art, yet many of them remain dependent on the artist’s creative intervention. In order to consider what might emerge when such intervention is reduced to the greatest possible extent, I sought to explore a relationship with the machine through an attitude of “active observation.” What is attempted here is the ritualistic use of a drawing machine as a device for invoking invisible forces.

The machine is constructed from an assemblage of discarded materials, many of which are deadstock items that contain no visible traces of having once belonged to another place or purpose. Just as one cannot confirm one’s own existence entirely alone, I believe that even discarded objects and machines cannot affirm their existence without mediation through others. To evoke the invisible forces latent within each discarded object, the machine rigorously repeated 198 ritual procedures, while the artist made a daily pilgrimage to the site throughout the 25-day exhibition period and continued fasting. Perhaps no such invisible forces exist within these discarded materials. Yet by treating them as though they do exist, I wondered whether it might become possible to witness the moment when the hands of a broken clock begin to move again.