In the shadow image of a mechanical device ticking away under a glass box on a wall, reminiscent of the atmosphere of 19th century physics laboratories, we see a metaphorical representation of two conceptions of time and the continuous interweaving of the two conceptual approaches. The cyclical view of time, represented in everyday life by the rotation of the clock and experienced through the recurrent change of days and seasons, is morphed into the other conception, marked by the visual metaphor of the laid form of the number eight, called the lemniscate. This is a visual code of the continuous and irreversible flow of time, representing the never-ending equation of time. Playfully and sensually evoking the inseparable interdependence of the two perceptions, the delicate image of the light/shadow plane projected onto the mechanical structure repeats the spatial choreography of the mechanical structure, elaborated with mathematical precision, in an infinite sequence. The kinetic installation can be interpreted as a ‘time machine’, a three-dimensional light drawing, a moving image or simply a poetic scientific experiment.

Barnabás Bencsik