One day, my mom turned into a clock!

“Be ready in 10 minutes.” “There’s one minute left.”
For mom, time is like a rule that must be set and followed.
10 minutes, 3 minutes, 1 minute… The more the mother divides the time into small pieces and presses the child, the more questions arise within the child.

'Why should I do that?'
Then one day, the child's wish came true! The mother turned into a clock.


The child ate 'slowly' and went to school 'leisurely', unlike usual, but the clock (and the mother) only moved the second and minute hands slightly and did not say anything.
It's the first time in my life that I'm late for school, but to my child, it's just 'being late', and the strange change that has brought about makes the morning peaceful.


"Clock Soup" suddenly puts the brakes on a life where time is mortgaged and we live chasing and being chased by every second.
It places us in the face of conflicting times that feel like punishment to the mother and freedom to the child, and gives us the steering wheel to decide where the time ahead should lead.


'Clock soup? Clock soup?'
A child's brave adventure to the unknown clock tower.

After returning from school, the child discovers that the clock (his mother) has completely stopped, and begins to feel anxious.
Who would believe someone who asks for help but says their mother has become a clock?
I managed to find a place that fixes watches, but the old lady disappeared after leaving a mysterious message telling me to come to the 'Watch Bath'...


The peace brought about by the freedom from nagging was short-lived, as the child now faced the life-changing task of fixing the clock (his mother).
The child loads a clock larger than his body onto a cart and sets off towards a clock shop of unknown destination.
The unfamiliar scenery that kept me going, the sense of dread that sent chills down my spine, how strongly must I have held back my steps as I took them without knowing my destination?


The surreal world of Clock Bath finally appears to the child who completed the adventure without giving up.
The child lets his mother rest in the clock bath and stays by her side the whole time.
It must have been a very difficult day for the mother who had to endure the helpless situation of being transformed into a clock, and for the child who came to find the unknown clock bath as the mother's guardian.
The two of them fall into a deep, restful sleep, leaning on each other in the clock bath.


In the quiet time when everyone is asleep, Grandma Clock Tang is more nervous than ever and starts to fix the clocks one by one...
Will the child be able to get his mother back from this clock bath as he wishes?

How about soaking in a clock bath sometimes?

"Clock Soup" is a story written while observing the author's own strictness about time and imagining, "Could I really end up turning into a clock?"
Why is the journey of a child who sets out to find a clock bath to cure his mother who has turned into a clock so unfamiliar yet interesting, and so harsh yet so warm?

The author added the fun of searching and expanding upon the image of designing a space called 'Clock Bath' by adding homage to surrealist works such as Rousseau, Magritte, and Dali.
What about the suggestion that the child's journey to the Clock Bath, of unknown origin, was guided and protected by the Clock Bath Grandmother?
The grandmother's gaze, as she silently watches over the child who came with difficulty, shows her gratitude and care for him, as if she is comforting him of his fatigue.
Just as in "Mom's Guide," the mother finds comfort and rest by visiting her mother, in "Clock Soup," the mother is healed by the hands of the clock soup grandmother, and the child is freed from the fear caused by the difficult adventure and the mother's change.


In moments when we feel anxious from the weight of the world and the pressure of time, why not sit down in the clock bath within us?
It's okay to leave a few rusty screws out for a while.

An anxious mother and a child pressed for time.
Today is a day when both of us need some time to relax.

How about soaking in a clock bath and loosening a few screws?

I hope that the mother will gain energy to escape from her obsession through a short break, and that the child will have a chance to grow on his own through his mother's absence.
- Among the author's planning intentions