Networks of tubes conjure images of instantaneous movement of matter and energy between places. From delivering mail through pneumatic tubes to transporting people in Hyperloops, interconnected tubes moving content represent the future as well as a bygone past.

Today’s modern buildings, thick and cut off from the outdoors, could not support life without a complex infrastructure of ducts for moving air. Liminal City presents an in-between place to be occupied and explored. It is built of elements that are designed to be unseen and arranged to connect fragments of space and time. 

Liminal City is a site specific installation and is designed to stimulate interplay within the gallery spaces of the Hyundai Motor Studio Busan. Various limbs of Liminal City are fitted with mirrors.

They work as periscopes that create visual connections across the length of the gallery and in between the ground floor, the second floor, and mezzanine level. A periscope also reaches down to passersby outside so that they can view art work inside the gallery above.

Liminal City was commissioned for the “Do You Miss the Future?” exhibition curated by Somi Sim.

Team:
Client: Hyundai Motor Studio Busan
Producer: Wuxi Weishan Environmental Protection Technology Co., Ltd.
Principals: He Zhe, James Shen, Zang Feng
Project Team: Lin Mingkai, Huang Jia
Photographer: Hyundai Motor Company, Yean Ku, People’s Architecture Office