ART-PRESENTATION: Do Ho Suh-Almost Home

Do Ho Suh works transform the familiarity of a domestic space into a liminal one, where ‘home’ is both an idealized concept and physical reality. Through these spaces, Suh examines how home and identity are ever-evolving concepts in today’s global society, and how culture, tradition, migration, and displacement intersect as we construct our ideas of selfhood and origin.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Smithsonian American Art Museum

Do Ho Suh’s immersive, architectural fabric sculptures explore the global nature of contemporary identity.  The exhibition “Do Ho Suh: Almost Home” transformed the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s galleries through his installations, which recreate to scale several of his former homes from around the world. Through these works, Suh investigates the nature of home and memory and the impact of migration and displacement on an individual’s sense of self.  The exhibition features a major installation of the artist’s brightly hued “Hub” sculptures (detailed, hand-sewn fabric recreations of homes where Suh has lived in New York, Berlin and Seoul). In his works, Do Ho Suh documents carefully the architectural spaces where he has lived and worked in order to reproduce them in full scale as visually striking, sculptural artworks. In transparent fabric structures, he brings to life experiences of mobility and change, of crossing boundaries and moving between different mental spaces and states. Also on presentation is a series of semi-transparent replicas of household objects called “Specimens”, this series mines deeper into the details of Suh’s domestic existence, turning everyday appliances into uncanny lightboxes. Suh’s prolific drawing practice will also play an important role in the exhibition, highlighting the significant role and varied forms this medium plays in his oeuvre. The exhibition features a wide spectrum of his works on paper, including drawings rendered in pen, pencil, ink, and watercolor as well as Suh’s large-scale rubbings. Suh’s prolific drawing practice also plays an important role in the exhibition, highlighting the significant role and varied forms this medium plays in his oeuvre. The exhibition features a wide spectrum of his works on paper, including drawings rendered in pen, pencil, ink, and watercolor as well as Suh’s large-scale rubbings.

Info: Curator: Sarah Newman, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 8th and F Streets, NW, Washington, Duration: 16/3-5/8/18, Days & Hours: Daily 11:30-19:00, https://americanart.si.edu