Paxolin
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An oak apple strikes a glass of water
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Two clock motors
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Torch light and oak apple
Oak apple and torchlight
Oak apple suspended on a thread
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An empty glass
Two oak apples and torchlight
Oak apple and torchlight
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These installations feature oak apples, mechanically activated by battery-powered clock motors to strike at two-second intervals, producing a consistent and rhythmic sonic pattern. These clock motors, originally developed in the 1950s at Bell Laboratories, utilize quartz crystal oscillators to maintain precise timekeeping and represent a pivotal moment in the miniaturization and widespread domestication of electronic timing devices. Their continued ubiquity in contemporary life serves as a quiet backdrop to this work, which recontextualizes them in a more visceral and organic setting.
The oak apple, a natural growth formed by gall wasps on oak trees, introduces a contrasting material language to the precision of the clock motor. These organic forms, long associated with cycles in nature, folk medicine, and ink-making, carry historical resonance and a sense of temporal depth that challenges the mechanistic rhythm imposed upon them.
The constructions are lit by torchlight diffused through a translucent sheet of Paxolin, an early plastic laminate composed of paper and phenolic resin, once common in electrical engineering applications. Paxolin, itself a product of mid-20th-century innovation, now carries a patina of obsolescence—its presence in this context serves both as a material echo of the clock motors' origins and a mediator of light, imbuing the scene with a warm, amber glow. The combination of natural and synthetic elements highlights the interplay between organic temporality and the mechanical regulation of time,
The oak apple, a natural growth formed by gall wasps on oak trees, introduces a contrasting material language to the precision of the clock motor. These organic forms, long associated with cycles in nature, folk medicine, and ink-making, carry historical resonance and a sense of temporal depth that challenges the mechanistic rhythm imposed upon them.
The constructions are lit by torchlight diffused through a translucent sheet of Paxolin, an early plastic laminate composed of paper and phenolic resin, once common in electrical engineering applications. Paxolin, itself a product of mid-20th-century innovation, now carries a patina of obsolescence—its presence in this context serves both as a material echo of the clock motors' origins and a mediator of light, imbuing the scene with a warm, amber glow. The combination of natural and synthetic elements highlights the interplay between organic temporality and the mechanical regulation of time,
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