ARTISTS
Lee Wan
Lee Wan
Lee Wan
Proper Time, 2025, 560 Clocks, Dimensions variable. Courtesy the Artist
Five hundred and sixty clocks fill the pristine hallway walls, each ticking at its own rhythm. Each clock bears a name, birth year, occupation, and nationality, while directional speakers broadcast the voices of these individuals in multiple languages. Lee Wan traveled the world investigating how many hours people must work to afford a single meal, interviewing an American doctor, an Indian farmer, a German student, a Korean office worker, among others. Based on this research, he translated each person's differently experienced time into clock speeds. Some clocks move quickly, others slowly, each creating its own temporal rhythm. Hundreds of voices and ticking sounds overlap, creating a dreamlike temporal landscape where viewers walk along the wall encountering the different "times" of people worldwide. The only constant is that our given time remains finite. Lee Wan explores the lives and meanings of individuals within systems, gaining international recognition as Korea's representative artist at the 2017 Venice Biennale.
