Honey, have you turned the transmission tower off?

2021 - 2023, light installation

The object consisting of light tubes explores the relationship between humans and electricity and its everyday use. Contemporary life is intertwined with electrical infrastructure throughout society, from work to hobbies and entertainment. However, many people, including myself, do not understand the mechanisms of how electricity is generated, transmitted, or consumed. Perhaps everyone has some idea, but when something goes wrong, we can at most call an electrician to solve the problem. This convenience and complexity of everyday life have long exceeded our own cognitive capacity. Electrical infrastructure represents a hyperobject that we do not see, hear, or feel. One way to materialize its presence is through consumption and its transformation into visible light.

My own aesthetic fascination with the structures of transmission towers led me to transport a tower from the countryside and scale it down to a human scale. Placing the form in a more personal and intimate space exposes a physical network that is both ubiquitous and unseen in nature and in the city. Besides creating friction between these very different environments, the object also highlights the formal aspect of the towers, giving them a certain sculptural charm that is inherently practical and functional. The object is functionally the opposite of a real tower; instead of transmitting electricity, it consumes it. Instead of monumentality, it alludes to subtlety. Instead of a transit space, it exists in the space of attention. Rationality is replaced by impression.