DO HO SUH
Korean artist Do Ho Suh's geographical transitions as video and fabric installations in 'Passage/s'
Writer - Madalena Páscoa
In his first exhibition at Victoria Miro, Do Ho Suh explores the idea of home, as both a physical and emotional place. Born in South Korea, the artist has lived in New York and Berlin, and recently moved to London. These geographical transitions serve as backdrop for Passage/s, where Do Ho Suh presents video installations, white fabric lightbox works and Hubs, a one-to- one scale version of the places in which the artist has lived and worked. Here, life is seen as a passageway, without a fixed destination – Hubs represents the journey through the transitory spaces used to connect rooms within a house, simultaneously representing every day and lifetime transitions.
Replicas of doors, corridors and halls are built from stitched polyester, wrapped around a steel frame. While moving across the space, the shifts in colour transport you through Do Ho Suh’s memories, an after-glow of the past brought forward to the present. The choice of fabric as a medium is linked to the artist’s desire to carry his home around with him, as the structures can be deconstructed and moved anywhere. Passage/s makes us reflect on the concepts of identity, transition and migration, a work that is particularly interesting within the current political context – the idea of building more walls contrasting with the translucent structures of the artist’s past homes.
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