Halsey Rodman

This heavy, metal object is a cast iron metronome, a timekeeping device designed to mark exact time by a regularly repeated tick. Whereas metronomes often employ an inverted pendulum rod that swings back and forth to control tempo, Moon Metronome is instead timeless and fixed between moments. Halsey Rodman’s metronome alludes to multiple overlapping timescales: geologic time, as it is cast in the metal that is, by mass, the most common element on Earth; cosmic time, given how ancient civilizations observed the movements of astrological bodies such as the moon to mark the passage of time; and what the artist refers to as “granular time,” the subjective sense of embodied time related to the lively irregularity of an individual’s heartbeat, rather than the regularity of time as measured by a mechanized metronome or clock. Even still, Moon Metronome inverts the metronome’s traditional use to allow for the movement of time around the stubbornly inert object to become palpable.