I’m always intrigued by the gulf that can exist between a piece of work and its various online truncated representations; as such, the abundance of images depicting Do Ho Suh’s Passage/s on social media, convinced me to see the show for myself at the Victoria Miro gallery this weekend.
Installation view, Do Ho Suh Passage/s
As I entered Gallery II, I understood why the images I saw online were mainly corners, edges, angles and interstices of translucent colours. The scale of the installation, comprised of nine structures, displayed in a 25 meters long gallery, requires to be experienced in situ. The work, developed in 2015, oscillates between architecture and sculpture by inviting the viewer to walk through a series of rooms mades of polyester fabric mounted on stainless steel structures. One of the underlying ambitions of the project is to shed a light on passageways and to reflect on the nature and significance of in-between spaces, rather than focusing on destinations. The spaces recreated here are inspired by rooms that the South Korean artist lived in, thus creating an imaginary and ubiquitous environment only composed of vestibules, corridors and hallways. The installation is at the same time remarkably detailed and ethereal. Components such as hinges, screws, locks, pipes are translated into transparent fabric. The colourful polyester fabric walls not only suggest an evanescent setting but they also convey a sense of domesticity which resonates with the evocation of the home that Do Ho Suh proposes. Walking through this multicoloured corridor is a destabilising concept, for being in this sequence of in-between spaces can lead to a sense of simultenous loss and wonder. Here, passages are not only thought of as transition spaces but as state of being which ask how can a multicultural and peripatetic identity can be defined? Somehow, by its delicate materiality and its introspective exploration of home, Passage/s offers an interesting inverted response to the work of Rachel Whiteread. Where Whiteread's concrete works explore ideas of collective identity and public spaces, here Do Ho Suh's installation can be read as a form of self-portrait where each architectural component becomes an attribute of the artist’s portrait and as such symbolically points at a feature of a space once lived. The colour variations take part in this self-exploration by suggesting to the viewer different psychological states.
As part of the exhibition, So Do Suh also exhibits a set of new works resulting from a new process developed during his residency at STPI Singapore. In this new method, the artist’s architectural pieces are compressed into 2D large dimensional ‘drawings’, where the gelatin tissue used to build a 3D room, is fused with paper by immersion in water.
Once in water, the gelatin tissue disappears, and reveals - on paper -the stiching which used to construct the architectural piece and which is now an abstract form of drawing. It strikes me that the press release describes the 2D pieces as drawings, for it is the impression I had whilst walking through the 3D installation. The stitches, made apparent by the choice of transparent polyester fabric, are not solely structural elements, but also take on an aesthetic quality. They sketch the boundaries of the space within which the installation is set up, and leave me with the impression of being in a drawing. To me, the 2D pieces provide an essential complimentary reading to the 3D exhibits. Just as much as Passage/s installation opens up a space to rethink in-betweeness, by deconstructing some of his 3D pieces into compressed abstractions, Do Ho Suh his opens up a space where one can witness the passages of his own process.
Installation view, Do Ho Suh Passage/s
Installation view, Do Ho Suh Passage/s
Installation view, Do Ho Suh Passage/s
Installation view, Do Ho Suh Passage/s
Installation view, Do Ho Suh Passage/s
Installation view, Do Ho Suh Passage/s