short film documents do ho suh's full-scale rubbing of his former NYC home

art21 — a nonprofit organization dedicated to connecting audiences to the artistic process — has shared an exclusive film of korean creative do ho suh’s latest work. the video documents the artist as he engages in his most recent project — a full-scale colored-pencil-on-paper rubbing of his former new york city home. this apartment, which suh lived in for eighteen years, has become the subject of numerous installations and artworks that consider themes of identity, memory, and displacement.

in episode #242 of art21’s digital series ‘exclusive’, do ho suh renders one final artwork inside his former new york city apartment — ‘rubbing/loving’. the process begins by wrapping each and every surface with white paper, covering the walls, ceiling, cabinets and even house keys. suh continues by rubbing colored pencil across the paper sheets, saturating them in a variety of vibrant colors. this technique both reveals and preserves all of the home’s overlooked yet memory-provoking details — such as the light switch, door handle, and lock. the project becomes a mobile testament to the apartment’s emotional importance to suh, and to its owner, who became a close friend. ‘the whole process is to remember the space, and also somehow memorialize the space,’ the artist says. ‘my energy has been accumulated, and in a way I think my rubbing shows that. I’m trying to show the layers of time.’