SPACE September 2024 (No. 682)
Secret Garden (2012) / Image courtesy of the artist; Lehmann Maupin; Victoria Miro. ©Do Ho Suh / Photo: Jeon Taeg Su
Do Ho Suh, at his studio ©Gautier Deblonde
From Aug. 17 to Nov. 3, Art Sonje Center is hosting a solo exhibition by Do Ho Suh titled ‘Do Ho Suh: Speculations’. Suh is a contemporary artist known for exploring themes such as the history of dwelling, migration, memory, and the clash of cultures through various media such as sculpture, installation, drawing, and video. This exhibition highlights projects that were not realised due to ‘physical and conceptual obstacles’ or ‘difficulties of execution’. As the exhibition title suggests, the focus is on works that are speculative in nature rather than physical. The Bridge Project (2010 – 2024) on the first floor, begins with the idea of constructing a ‘perfect home’ at a point equidistant from the various residences the artist has in different countries. The location of this perfect home might be at the midpoint of a long bridge connecting New York and Seoul, or on the Arctic Plateau, which is the midpoint between Seoul, New York, and London. The artist maintains a ‘self-hypnosis’ notion that the perfect home is achievable, collaborating with architects and also consulting with the United Nations to explore its international legal viability. However, the existence of the perfect home remains speculative, suggested only through sketches, videos, and various objects. Suh explains that Perfect Home is like the journey to the Tianzhu in Journey to the West, using the concept of a distant destination as a means to expand knowledge and spark adventure.
On the second floor are works on a wider spectrum of ‘speculative qualities’. My Homes (2024), an imaginary passageway made by lining up the entrances and exits of the artist’s homes and workspaces, and Inverted Monument-Plaza (2022), which inverts a statue of a powerful figure that towers above the ground, forcing it to go deep underground, are not unrealisable, but it seems difficult to find a space in which to realize them. Proposal for Sachonwang-sa (2024), a project to install a silk structure mentioned in the origin story of Sachonwang-sa on the actual site of the temple, Sacheonwansaji in Gyeongju, has been cancelled due to the pandemic and remains in a speculative state. The exhibition also includes projects that have transcended speculation and been realised. Public Figure (1998 – 2024), an anti-monument that places ‘anonymous majorities’ beneath the pedestal of a removed statue, is currently installed in the courtyard of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art. Suh’s house series, which involves replicating the hanok he lived in as a child and wedging it between buildings in Liverpool, placing it in the cargo hold of an 18-wheeler for a cross- country journey across the U.S., and landing it on a pedestrian bridge between high-rises in London, are also representative works of the artist. In a written interview with SPACE, Kim Sunjung (director, Artsonje Center) described Suh’s ‘architectural approach’ for two reasons. First, his extended commitment to projects, far longer than that of most artists, and second, his persistent research and collaboration with experts to solve engineering challenges. The Speculations exhibition indeed resembles an architectural exhibition, not only because of the repeated appearance of architectural structures like houses, buildings, and bridges, but also because it visualises the artist’s ideas through ‘hypotheses, diagrams, animations, models, and texts’ rather than physical realisations. Exhibitions, presentations, and publications of speculative projects are common in the field of architecture. Unlike the portfolios of contemporary artists, which rarely include unrealised projects, an architect’s portfolio often places equal importance on projects that remain at the conceptual stage. ‘Do Ho Suh: Speculations’ is a show that celebrates art as a pretext for adventure through an architectural presentation.
