Faculty of Design

Material Art & Design

Cherrie Jeon

Intangible time, Tangible records

This project reimagines time as a living flow by visualizing the Five Elements—wood, fire, earth, metal, and water—as fragments of memory, presence, and hope. It reflects the intertwining of nature’s cycles and personal identity across past, present, and future.

“This project began with my exploration of time—an abstract, ever-flowing force that shapes our lives through the choices we make across past, present, and future. Time is not absolute; its perception shifts with the observer and environment.In East Asian philosophy, the concept of Yin-Yang and the Five Elements seek to harmonize time with individual nature. The Five Elements—wood (목), fire (화), earth (토), metal (금), and water (수)—symbolize forces that connect humans, nature, and the cosmos, a belief that still permeates many lives today. In particular, the Five Elements are often linked to specific times of the year and life cycles, influencing how time is perceived and experienced. This concept is also integral to Korean traditions such as Saju, a method of analyzing a person’s fate and characteristics based on the year, month, day, and hour of their birth, and it continues to shape the lives of many Korean people today.Building on the relativity of time and the meaning of the Five Elements, I reimagined each element as a "fragment of time." By visualizing and arranging these fragments based on their inherent qualities, I expressed memories of the past, reflections of the present, and hopes for the future.The main piece draws inspiration from a tree—its roots, trunk, and branches representing time’s continual growth. I defined my own unit of time and randomly selected and arranged fragments reflecting the Five Elements. This process itself became a record—symbolizing the balance between intention and chance.A total of 40 fragments were used, selected every 48 hours across the 80 days spent creating this work. The resulting composition serves as both a visual chronicle and a physical embodiment of time.”