Hanwha and Lisson Gallery bring Devon Turnbull's Listening Room to Seoul for the first time
27 August 2024
5-6, Dokseodang-ro 29-gil, Yongsan-gu, Seoul
4 September - 14 September 2024
Mon - Fri 11.00 - 20.00
Sat - Sun 11.00 - 21.00
Presented in Seoul for the first time, the Brooklyn-based speaker sculptor and sound guru, Devon Turnbull – aka OJAS – introduces HiFi Listening Room Dream No. 1, a free, drop-in experience for all to surrender to the act of listening, with rare intention, to recorded and live music. Being the talk of the international culture community, he has featured HiFi Listening Room Dream No. 1 at Lisson Gallery in London & New York and currently also at SFMOMA in San Francisco. Featuring a high-performance, handmade sound system composed of a wall of brutalist speakers, a turntable, a series of amplifiers and seats typically reserved for meditation, this site-specific acoustic setting creates a transformative environment to absorb and reflect. Described by Turnbull as a “shrine to music”, each week a varied, curated programme of recorded tracks is presented, from unreleased music to all-time favorites across a range of mediums including vinyl, analogue tape and more. Daily five-hour music sessions by prominent local DJs and musical exchanges with the artist are planned throughout the exhibition period.
Devon Turnbull (b. 1979, New York) is known under his creative pseudonym OJAS, a Sanskrit term that loosely translates to ‘life vitality’, and one that has been used multi-disciplinary, from graffiti to streetwear, music, high fashion and graphic design. Having originally studied Audio Engineering, Turnbull went on to co-found and design for the influential subterranean clothing brand, Nom de Guerre, in 2003. During this time he regularly visited Japan, where he was exposed to the now almost-extinct craft of the audio-building, and began to turn his attention to experimentation and engineering of underground audio. Over the decades, Turnbull has created a countercultural following for creating handmade, high-fidelity home-audio equipment that is committed to conveying the naturalistic quality of music. These monolithic speakers have been seen and heard in spaces including the homes of celebrity music producers like Mark Ronson; Virgil Abloh’s ‘Figures of Speech’ exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum; the Nine Orchard Hotel, NYC Ace Hotel and Public Records in Brooklyn, NYC; and the fashion retailers, Ssense and Supreme Stores. Through all of these collaborations, Turnbull’s devotion to utter sonic purity remains unparalleled.
Previously referred to as like a “spiritual gathering”, the contemplative nature of HiFi Listening Room Dream No. 1 was influenced by Turnbull’s upbringing: raised by former Transcendental Meditation teachers, Turnbull’s family relocated from New York to a remote town in Iowa where he attended the Maharishi School, an academy connected with the movement, with hours each day devoted to meditation. While Turnbull no longer observes this form of meditation, the sense of community and shared practice, as well as the power of mind and conscious-altering behaviours – in tandem with his parents who now academically advise on psilocybin studies – has inspired the energy and identity of HiFi Listening Room Dream No. 1. While music is now listened to more than ever, rarely do we listen with focused attention rather than passivity. Turnbull equates a musician with a Shaman, maintaining that they similarly manipulate the functioning of the brain.
