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Gathering
Time

A Nomadic Practice of Material Memory

Jay Lee jayartmaking.com
Salon ACME Installation — Jay Lee

"I gather earth, minerals, plants, and grains from each place I live — transforming them into works that carry the memory of the land."

The Practice

The Nomadic
Studio

Since 2022, I've exhibited and presented work across 14 cities in 11 countries. At each stop, I collect local materials: earth pigments, plants for natural dyes, grains for bioplastics, glass ingredients. The work begins with the land.

The studio is not a fixed place — it is a practice of attention. Each location offers different soils, different light, different memory.

Locations

Seoul Mexico City New York Leipzig Paris Buenos Aires Berlin London Svalbard Oaxaca Istanbul Suffolk Copenhagen Tulum

Each material holds time differently.

Earth Pigments Geological time — millions of years compressed into color
Cast Glass Frozen time — breath trapped forever in the moment of making
Bioplastics Decaying time — decomposing over months, returning to earth
Natural Dyes Seasonal time — flowers bloom once a year, colors harvested when the season allows

Earth Pigments — Geological Time

Earth Colors

Grinding stones, sifting soils, boiling roots. Raw pigments bound with Gum Arabic, Funori red algae, and rabbit skin glue — materials used for centuries, each carrying its own geography.

Traces of You (2025)
Traces of You (2025)
Natural pigment with red algae, encaustic, oil on canvas, 15×15cm

Cast Glass — Frozen Time

Glass

Molten glass traps air bubbles — permanent archives of breath at the moment of making. Each cast piece becomes a time capsule.

Training: Berlin Glass, Berlin Flame Studio, UrbanGlass Brooklyn — 15+ courses (2022–2024)

An Attempt to Empty My Mind (2025)
An Attempt to Empty My Mind (2025)
Cast glass sculptures, 7×9.5×5cm each
The Path I installed on Arctic ice field (2025)

Svalbard, Norway — 2025

The Path I

Oil sticks and Arctic earth on 70-meter thermo receipt paper roll, cast glass — installed on Arctic ice field. 7000×5.7cm for paper, 34×25×15cm for glass sculpture.

The parallel between geological ice — compressed over millennia — and handmade glass, frozen in seconds.

Bioplastics — Decaying Time

Decaying Forms

Sculptures from cornstarch, agar-agar, and gelatin — materials that decompose and transform. The studio becomes a kitchen. The resulting forms carry the textures and smells of their ingredients.

Weaving Memories (2025)
Weaving Memories (2025)
Cornstarch bioplastic with cornhusks and corn fiber, London

Natural Dyes — Seasonal Time

Seasonal Colors

Working with master dyers in Oaxaca — cochineal, indigo, palo campeche, marigold on handmade cotton woven on backstrap looms. Colors that can only be harvested when the season allows.

Oaxaca Landscape (2025)
Oaxaca Landscape (2025)
Natural dye on handmade cotton fabric, 123×300cm

Buenos Aires — 2025

Making a Forest

At Residencia Corazon in La Plata, Buenos Aires (2025), plane tree leaves, red earth from Misiones, silk floss tree flowers, and paper mâché became materials for site-specific installations. Two gallery spaces explored universal and local plant narratives.

Making a Forest — Universal Plants, Gallery 1
Making a Forest — Universal Plants, Gallery 1

Ecological Materials

Memories of
Corn and Rice

Naturally dyed corn husks, rice grains hand-sewn on linen, cast glass sculptures.

Salon ACME no.13 (2026) — Mexico City

How do staple grains store and transmit cultural memory? Corn in Mexico, rice in Korea — two grains that feed half the world. Through ritual dining, bioplastic sculpture making, and textile installation.

Salon ACME no.13 (2026)
Salon ACME no.13 (2026) — Installation view, Mexico City

"What stories does the earth beneath your feet hold?"

An invitation to listen to the materials around you — the soil, the water, the plants — and discover what memories they carry.

Jay Lee