do ho suh's immersive fabric passages cross cultural boundaries at victoria miro gallery

immersive fabric sculptures, works on paper, and a video installation infill london’s victoria miro gallery as part of ‘passage/s’ — a solo show by do ho suh. from now through march 18th, the artist presents a body of work that draws from his nomadic life, first leaving his native south korea to study in the united states, and more recently moving between new york, seoul and london. suh has conceived new fabric sculptures especially for the galleries — including a walk-through configuration of ‘hubs’ — and exhibits compressed, two-dimensional ‘drawings’ of his signature architectural pieces for the very first time.

installation view of ‘passage/s’ at victoria miro gallery
image by thierry bal © do ho suh
courtesy the artist, lehmann maupin, new york and hong kong, and victoria miro, london

using fabric, suh meticulously replicates the architecture of places in which he lived, and his recent move to london provides an overarching theme for this exhibition. ‘hub, london apartment’ is a partial representation of his UK home and is joined by other ‘hubs’, including a portrayal of his studio. the union of these corridor-like spaces — formed by stitched panels of colored polyester — create a walk-through configuration of semi-transparent structures that occupy the 25 meter-long gallery space at victoria miro. the act of moving through them intends to impart a distinct emotional experience of crossing boundaries and moving between psychological states.

image by thierry bal © do ho suh
courtesy the artist, lehmann maupin, new york and hong kong, and victoria miro, london

the exhibition also debuts suh’s latest artistic process. his signature architectural works have been flattened to form a series of large-scale, two-dimensional ‘drawings’. sewn in the same way as suh’s ‘hubs’, these pieces are immersed in water, during which a gelatin tissue canvas leaves an impression of fabric threads that appear as a skeletal framework against the colored form of an object. 

image by thierry bal © do ho suh
courtesy the artist, lehmann maupin, new york and hong kong, and victoria miro, london

also on view is a new collection of work from suh’s ‘specimen’ series. these lightbulbs, doorknobs, and smaller household fixtures and fittings are constructed from white fabric and displayed in lightboxes. the set of small-scale sculptures stems from suh’s permanent departure from his new york residence after twenty years. during this time, he completed the ‘rubbing/loving project’ by lining every surface of the interior with paper and caressing the surface with colored pencils and pastels.

entrance, ground floor, 348 22nd street, new york, 10011, USA, 2015
entrance, unit 2, 348 west 22nd street, new york, NY 10011, USA, 2016
entrance, unit g5, union wharf, 23 wenlock road, london, N1 7SB, UK, 2016
image by thierry bal © do ho suh
courtesy the artist, STPI – creative workshop & gallery, singapore, and victoria miro, london

finally, again drawing from the city of london, suh has realized a three-channel video installation in which he and his daughters explore the streets around his london home. attaching three GoPro video cameras to a stroller, the film documents three different viewpoints, while sound from the street and conversations between them in both english and korean signal the crossing of cultural and geographical boundaries.

staircase, ground floor, 348 west 22nd street, new york, NY 10011, USA, 2016
main entrance, 348 west 22nd street, new york, NY 10011, USA, 2016
image by thierry bal © do ho suh
courtesy the artist, STPI – creative workshop & gallery, singapore, and victoria miro, london

passage/s: the pram project, 2014-2016
image by thierry bal © do ho suh
courtesy the artist, lehmann maupin, new york and hong kong, and victoria miro, london

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