TANGIBLE SECRETS

Tangible Secrets is an ongoing project by Esther Jihye Cho that began in 2024. It started with a simple question: What would a secret look and feel like if you could hold it in your hands?
 

Cho began collecting anonymous messages found on the walls of public restrooms—confessions, fears, desires, jokes, and fragments of personal stories. Restrooms are unusual public spaces where people are briefly alone, and their walls often become places for thoughts that may be difficult to say elsewhere.
 

Cho gives these words a physical form through jiseung, a traditional Korean technique of twisting and weaving paper into objects. Each secret is written onto hanji, twisted into paper cord, and woven by hand. Words that might otherwise be erased, painted over, or forgotten become part of something that can be held and preserved.
 

As the project continues, Tangible Secrets has expanded beyond restroom walls. Visitors are invited to anonymously contribute a secret of their own. These submissions become material for future sculptures, bringing together private experiences from people who may never meet.
 

At its core, Tangible Secrets is about the things we carry but do not always say. A secret may belong to one person, but the feelings behind it—love, shame, fear, grief, hope, longing—are often shared by many. By turning these hidden words into physical objects, the project creates a place where private experiences can exist together and be seen.

share a secret

Is there something you've never said out loud?

Leave it here, anonymously.
 

Your secret may become part of Tangible Secrets, written onto hanji, twisted into paper cord, and woven by hand into a sculpture. Your words will join those of others—private thoughts given a physical form.