Currently on at the Tate Modern is the Do Ho Suh: Walk the House exhibition and it is incredible! The concept of the artwork is to explore ‘what is home?’. Is it the structure or is it the memories that are made there? Can you take home with you as you move through life? Suh has lived in Seoul, London, and New York and the pieces in this exhibition are all reflective of the places he lived in those three cities.
The most stunning piece in the exhibition is a life size replica of Suh’s childhood home created in a thin layer of paper applied to the house and rubbed with graphite to pick up all the details of brick, wood grain, carvings and any other textures the house has. The paper has then been removed from the house and reconstructed as its own free standing structure. It looks ethereal and just how a memory might look if it was made solid. The patience and level of detail it took to create this piece just blew my mind.
The other works in the exhibition were much more colourful. I was drawn to this exhibition because a lot of the work uses textiles and stitch to depict everyday objects and by doing so turns them into something beautiful. There were several large stitch drawings that investigated the idea of home and memory alongside a flattened fabric staircase, and more paper castings of various homes that Suh had inhabited throughout his life.
In the centre of the room was a multi-coloured tunnel created from transparent fabric showcasing rooms from the different homes where Suh has lived, each one joining onto the next but taking you from place to place. In these rooms a range of domestic items were recreated in fabric and stitch, from taps to air conditioners to fire extinguishers. These textile structures were so impressive and had the smallest details included from the writing on a fire alarm to the hinges on a cupboard.
Lastly there was a third structure, a 1:1 scale fabric structure the size of Suh’s London home filled with more textile sculptures of all the fixtures and fittings from all the places he had lived, all located at the correct heights, resulting in clusters of lights, light switches, plug sockets, telephones, door knobs and plenty of other items. It is one of those installations that the more you look, the more you see, and if you returned you would spot things you missed before!
There were many other artworks to view along the walls, with the three life size structures dominating the space in the middle of the room. As a textile lover I thoroughly enjoyed this exhibition, but I think it would speak to most people as home is such an important concept and it’s interesting to see these everyday domestic items elevated to pieces of art. The exhibition is on at the Tate Modern and is £20 for a ticket or free for members. It’s on until mid-October and well worth a visit in my opinion!