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DO-HO SUH

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In late May, Do-Ho Suh unveiled his Fallen Star 1/5Scale (2008)in the exhibition "Psycho Buildings: Artists and Architecture" atthe Hayward Gallery in London. The exhibition featured artistswho construct dwelling-like structures and environments thatinvite viewers to experience interior spaces mentally, emotionallyand even physically and to reflect on the active relationship ofthe body and memory with such spaces. Fallen Star 1/5 Scaleis a large, full-color architectural model of Suh's New Englandapartment, where the artist lived in 1993 while studying at theRhode Island School of Design (RISD) in Providence, physicallycolliding with a model of his Korean childhood home, in the styleof a 19th-century scholar's retreat. In an April email message,Suh described the title, Fallen Star, as "a 'star' that falls fromouter space. If there were a living being on that star, that beingwould be alien to us-a visitor from another world. The titleimplies the notion of 'displacement.'''

Fallen Star was Suh's fourth major installation andconlmission within the past seven months on three continents:North America, Europe and Asia. For an internationally exhibitedartist who splits his time between New York and Seoul whenhe's not installing his work elsewhere, the idea of displacementspeaks not only to his personal story but also to the demands ofhis chosen career. With a life in both Korea and the US, Suh has a

By Christine Starkman

(I\t>ove) (OelaillFALlEN STAR V5. 2008.

How the age-old tension between individualand society drives installations that

embody humanity's awesome potential.

INFINITE POINTS

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unique relationship to his place of origin. Vacillating between thenostalgic and autobiographical, and the impersonal and political,Suh's sculptures-always monumental in scale-are born of theartist's removed perspective.

Born in 1962 in Seoul, Suh earned his BFA and MFA inoriental painting at Seoul National University, and pursued asecond BFA in painting at RISD, graduating in 1994. He addedan MFA in sculpture at Yale University in 1997. He is best knownfor his fabric dwellings that trigger awareness of the ambiguousboundaries between personal and public spaces. Seminal worksfrom the late 1990s include semi-transparent recreations of hischildhood home, as in the celadon-colored silk installation,

Suh recalls that in his dream, hewas haunted by the clicking soundofdog-tags as he walked. ..

Seoul Home (1999), and a pink nylon version of his apartment inNew York, 348 West 22nd St., Apt. A, New York, NY Wall (1999).Applying the exact measurements of the original dwellings, Suhcreated the sculptures at life-scale by sewing pieces of fabrictogether with the help of master seamstresses in Korea. Thechoice of medium was due to its lightness and transportability;Seoul Home fits into two suitcases, perfect for an artist on themove. As instaHations, both replicas are suspended from theceiling like canopies to resemble three-dimensional houses.Seoul Home is hung so that it floats in the ail', whereas 348 West22nd St. is positioned so that the ground is level to the floorof the house. In the case of the latter, viewers are welcome toenter and explore the interior space which, in addition to walls,ceilings and doors, includes details such as bookshelves, sinks,light switches, sockets and doorknobs made entirely of fabric.

After graduation from Yale, a number ofgroup exhibitions­notably, a show at downtown hotspot Gavin Brown's enterprisein 1997 and the PS 1Contemporary Art Center roundup of localtalent, "Greater New York:' in 2000-helped Suh gain purchasein the New York scene. This culminated with his first US soloshow at Lehmann Maupin gallery in 2000. Concurrently, SuhwaS also exhibiting at prestigious venues in Asia such as GalleryHyundai, Artsonje Center and Rodin Gallery in Seoul and Tokyo'sShiseido Gallery.

With a growing reputation on two continents, Suh entered

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the international art Hmelight at the 49th Venice Biennale in2001, where he represented Korea and the US at both the Koreaand Italian pavilions. In the Korea Pavilion, Some/One (2001),invited viewers to walk across a shimmering metal floor madeof approximately 100,000 military dog tags linked together andengraved with randomly assorted numbers and letters. As theyprogressed into an interior rOOln, viewers discovered that the

"floor" was in fact an absurdly long train extending from a larger­than-life coat of armor, standing nine-feet tall with its back tothe entrllllce. Circling the ominous, hollow effigy, viewers foundan opening in the armor which, lined on the inside with mirrorsheets, cast back their distorted reflections.

Inspired in part by Suh's two years of mandatory service inthe Korean army, the work is a powerful meditation on identity,group dynamics and' individual responsibility in the shadowof what is sti.ll a heavily-militarized international war zone.Using the mechanisms of sensation and exploration, Some/One asks viewers to recognize something about themselvesby going through an alienating process as they are confrontedwith unfamiliar terrain. Suh recounted in an interview with thePBS television series, ART:21, that his vision for the installationactually came from a dream in which he found himself walkingacross a football stadium in which the same coat of armor andtrain made of dog-tags covered the entire playing field. Suhrecalls that in his dream, he was haunted by the clicking soundof the dog-tags as he walked over them.

Some/One also developed strategies apparent in an earlierwork included in the Italian Pavilion, Floor (1997-2001), whichstartled viewers with a seemingly empty room. As they walkedacross the room's glass-panel floor, viewers realized that the floorwas held up by 180,000 miniature figures made of PVC material,their arms and palms raised in a supporting gesture. Stunningand full of wit, Floor combined Suh's technical finesse with his

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interest in defining the intersection between individuals and thepublic sphere. Together the two installations at Venice embodiedSuh's dueling, twin themes: culture as represented through asubjective standpoint (his own memories and dreams) andculture seen from an objective remove, in which individualityis eclipsed by the volume of individuals participating en mass.

The appearance at Venice was the culmination of an almostdecade-long transformation for Suh, who comes from an artisticand scholarly background. His father, Suh Se-Ok, a famous inkpainter who established the Mungnimhoe art movement in theearly 1960s, promoted modernism in Korea using traditionalmaterials of ink, brush and paper. Suh, along with his youngerbrother, grew up learning the Korean traditional scholarly arts:painting, poetry and calligraphy. Conseqtlently, Suh followedin his father's footsteps by majoring in oriental painting andexhibiting his contemporary ink paintings in several shows inSeoul in the late 1980s.

Suh was already following a successful trajectory by thetime he moved to the us to pursue a second BFA in painting atRISD, having been included in the 1989 Sao Paulo Biennial andsurveys at the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Kwachon,and Kiev City Museum in 1990. Yet RISD changed the COUl"seof his life and career. While there, Suh, in a last minute attemptto fulfill a required non-elective studio course, signed up for asculpture class after the glass-blowing class he first selectedwas unavailable. One of the assignments given in the sculptUl'eclass required students to create a sculpture using clothingto address identity. Attaching 3,000 military dog tags to theliner of a standard-issue US military jacket, Suh created Metal

Jacket (1993), which later became the basis for Some/Olle. Aftercompleting the requirement, Suh made a conscious decision to

stop painting and continue making sculptures.Since then, Suh's early work with clothing and notions of

identity in relation to space has evolved to include abstract

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The appearance at Venice was theculmination ofan almost decade­long transformation for Suh ...

ideas rendered in three dimensions. Karma (2003) is amassive fiberglass sculpture of two legs dressed in suit pantsand shiny oxford shoes that extend in mid-stride from floorto ceiling. Recalling the Venice Floor installation, a clusterof tiny figures sl'1pports the weight of the hind foot, whileothers run into position under the other foot as it descends tothe ground. The big authority stepping on the little people isa popular reading of Karma. Suh, however, sees the work asdepicting interdependence, with the giant and the little peoplesymbioticaloly supporting each other. The strides of a nation aresupported by its many citizens.

Karma remains an important concept for Suh, whose recentwork includes the installation Cause and Effect (2007-08), firstcreated for a solo exhibition at Lehmann Maupin gallery in late2007. In this work, thousands of interlocking' figures made oftransparent resin, colored in a gradient from red and orange towhite hues, are suspended from the ceiling to form a swirlingvortex. In early 2008, Suh revisited the work in a permanentinstallation for the inauguration of the Towada Art Center inAomori province in Japan. This new version plunges from theart center's 30-foot high ceiling into a blood-red, attenuatedspike. Ringing the centerpiece is a transparent curtain of whitefigures. With the compositional figures hunched on each other'sbacks, Cause and Effect's dichotomy between individual andcollective takes on transcendent dimensions. Visually, the workis breath-taking, but it remains uncertain as to whether thissublime force of nature represents humanity's destmctive orcreative capabilities.

Coming full-circle from grand, cosmic themes to intimateconcerns, the Hayward Gallery installation, Fallen Star 1/5 Scale(2008), marks the beginning of a 13-chapter narrative entitled

"Speculation Project," an autobiographical series addressingSuh's experience of moving from Korea to the US. Suh begancreating works for the "Fallen Star" series while he was anartist-in-residence at Artpace in San Antonio in 2006. Thestory begins with Fallen Star: Wind ofDestiny (2006), in which

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Suh makes architecturalenvironments that reflect on thehistory ofspecific buildings,materials, processes offabricatiolL..

a miniature Korean traditional house constructed out of whiteresin sits precariously on top of a vortex made of carved whiteStyrofoam pieces. Suh suspended the work from the ceiling andviewers, following the rise of the powerful twister, could discerna model of a Korean traditional house perched on top. The workis about Suh's sudden and chaotic departure from Korea and theunknown future ahead.

Subsequently, in Fallen Star: New Beginning 0/35 Scale)(2006), Suh visualizes the violent collision of,tpe wooden Koreanhouse-a representation of his family home-with his three-stat),New England apartment, this time with the structures at 1/35of their original scales. Suh meticulously copied evet)' detailof both houses, complete with the paper window shades, redbrick fa,ade and gray-tiled roof of the New England house andthe ceramic-tile roof, wooden doors and windows, and eventhe Chinese calligraphy written on vertical sheets of papel' andwooden panels of the Korean house. Commenting on the "FallenStar" narrative, Suh imagines the Korean house flying across thePacific Ocean, colliding with the New England house and comingback to earth with a parachute to ensure its safe landing.

Both houses increase in size as the narrative progresses.Fallen Star 1/8 Scale (2006) shows the Korean house becomingpart of the New England house. Scaffolding is visible underneaththe Korean house and new bricks have been placed around thepoint of contact between the two structures to indicate theprocess of assimilation, corresponding with the period anti

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process of adjustment Suh underwent while a student at RISD.The most recent installment in London, Fallen Star 1/5 Scale

(2008), is more than 12 feet in height, with the interior furniture,objects and architectural details also growing in size along withthe buildings. Viewers can see in greater detail the interiors andexteriors of both houses.

Suh began his career using silk to recreate life-scalearchitectural interiors that contained deep emotions andmeaningful memories. As with the other artists selected inthe Hayward exhibition, including the provocative Austriancollective Gelitin, known for assembling junk and scraps intodysfunctional communalspaces. and the Japanese architectsAtelier Bow-wow, who conceived the concept of "petarchitecture" in response to the extreme constraints on urbanspace in Tokyo, Suh makes architectural environments thatreflect on the history of specific buildings, materials, processesof fabrication and the social, cultural and political meaningsattached to architecture.

Having accepted a prestigious artist-in-residence programin Berlin, Suh plans to focus on the next chapters of the

"Speculation Project" there. The future architectural installmentswill again invite the audience to experience directly Suh's visionand personal references, and at the same time renew social,human and spatial relations.

Do-Ho Suh's Falfen Star 1/5 Scale will continue in exhibition in "Psycho Buildings"at the Hayward Gallery in London through August 25.

Christine Starkman is curator of Asian art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

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