Fixation 5 offers a quiet yet intricate exploration of sound, time and perception. Installed on the wall at a height associated with landscape painting, the work initially appears as a monochromatic black panel. On closer inspection, however, its surface reveals a complex arrangement of audio cables, attached to a 60-channel speaker system, with playback circuit boards on a surface of fibreglass and mesh panel. These components remain deliberately exposed, forming a relief across the dark ground.

The cables trace delicate, organic patterns across the surface. Their forms resemble wood grain, root systems or dense foliage. The materials are entirely black against a black background, and so the image does not reveal itself immediately. Instead, texture and shadow gradually disclose the composition, inviting viewers to approach slowly and look more carefully. Sound is the essential component in the work. Hidden within the structure, the speakers emit a series of chords, broken down into fixed pitches at particular parts of the work. As the viewer walks past the piece, these pitches shift based on orientation to the viewers position, effectively giving the viewer agency in the ‘playing’ of the work. Hosoi describes sound as a ‘time-based medium,’ yet in Fixation 5 she seeks to loosen its dependence on linear progression. The circulating sound fragments create what she describes as a sense of ‘non-time,’ allowing moments to repeat, overlap and reproduce freely in relation to the position of each viewers body, rather than advancing toward a fixed conclusion on its own terms.

This temporal dimension becomes particularly striking within the context of an art fair environment, where this work was first exhibited. Hosoi’s work is often responsive to site and context, whether a museum, theatre, or gallery and this work treats the art fair as an unavoidable and now ubiquitous site for encounters with contemporary art. In an environment dominated by visual work, viewers often move rapidly from one work to another, marked by a frenetic impulse and desire to see art at an accelerated pace and volume. By embedding a subtle sonic presence within a visually restrained surface, Hosoi encourages a pause in that rhythm of constant movement and shifts engagement from the exclusively visual to a mixed mode of encounter. The work rewards sustained attention, asking viewers to slow down, listen and experience time at their own pace.