Do Ho Suh

Do Ho Suh’s architectural installations evoke the personal memories and inner experiential world of the viewer. Suh is interested in the way in which we, as human beings, relate to the spaces in which we live and what it means to be ‘at home’. The artist’s replicas of his previous homes, made by hand and recreated down to the smallest detail, capture an experience that lies somewhere between a dream and reality. Inspired by his personal experiences, his work transcends the purely biographical and touches on universal themes such as belonging, memory, identity and migration. Voorlinden exhibits sculptural installations, scale models, drawings and videos by the artist.

‘I see life as a passageway, with no fixed beginning or destination. We tend to focus on the destination all the time and forget about the in-between spaces.’ – Do Ho Suh

In times of increasing globalisation and migration, it is more important than ever to stop and reflect for a moment on the significance of individual places. Do Ho Suh’s work arises from a need to suss out the contours of a space and the concept of identity. This is the result of the artist’s personal experience with having to repeatedly uproot his existence and then form new attachments during his many intercontinental migrations. The contrast between the United States and South Korea also plays a major role in his work, as it confronts Suh with his own identity. The cultures of the two countries have very different perspectives on the individual and the collective. In his own work, for instance, Do Ho Suh places the personal in opposition to the universal, the physical alongside the incorporeal and individual versus collective identity.