Feeling overshadowed by his father - a succesful painter - Suh decided to travel away from his home in Korea, to be able to do his own thing. However, when he came to America, he missed his home, and wanted to find a way to carry his home with him. That spurred a project that involved making a replica of his parents home with transportable fabric. This was his way of actively dealing with his issues of longing, and his feelings of cultural displacement.
According to an article on UCSD’s Stuart Collection, Do Ho Suh’s Fallen Star “ (pictured left) reflects Suh’s on-going exploration of themes around the idea of home, cultural displacement, the perception of our surroundings, and how one constructs a memory of a space.”
Many of his other projects deal with the notion of space, especially that of personal space. He is aware of this because he is used to being in places where there is very little personal space, and he uses this in his artwork. In his monument that was commissioned, he wants to recognize people in everyday life, instead of focusing on just one person. I think that ties in with his yearbook project, where he superimposes all faces into one. Noting that we are all the same.
I think much of that thinking came from the required military service. Much of his art focuses on that; the uniforms, the dogtags, the loss of the individual. He feels that the military dehumanized him, and provided him with a critical distance from the things in life. This allows his work to let others see things differently.
“In “Some/One,” (top right) the floor of the gallery is blanketed with polished military dog tags. Evocative of the way an individual soldier is part of a larger troop or military body, these dog tags swell to form a hollow, ghost-like suit of armor at the center of the room.” PBS Art 21
Do-Ho- Suh is an installation artist. He uses found objects, and non-traditional sculpture materials. He uses small objects to make large pieces of artwork, and uses a lot of repetition. Focusing on the individual versus the collective.
“Best known for his intricate sculptures that defy conventional notions of scale and site-specificity, Suh draws attention to the ways viewers occupy and inhabit public space. In several of the artist’s floor sculptures, viewers are encouraged to walk on surfaces composed of thousands of miniature human figures.” PBS Art 21
Many of his other projects deal with the notion of space, especially that of personal space. He is aware of this because he is used to being in places where there is very little personal space, and he uses this in his artwork. In his monument that was commissioned, he wants to recognize people in everyday life, instead of focusing on just one person. I think that ties in with his yearbook project, where he superimposes all faces into one. Noting that we are all the same.
I think much of that thinking came from the required military service. Much of his art focuses on that; the uniforms, the dogtags, the loss of the individual. He feels that the military dehumanized him, and provided him with a critical distance from the things in life. This allows his work to let others see things differently.
“In “Some/One,” (top right) the floor of the gallery is blanketed with polished military dog tags. Evocative of the way an individual soldier is part of a larger troop or military body, these dog tags swell to form a hollow, ghost-like suit of armor at the center of the room.” PBS Art 21
Do-Ho- Suh is an installation artist. He uses found objects, and non-traditional sculpture materials. He uses small objects to make large pieces of artwork, and uses a lot of repetition. Focusing on the individual versus the collective.
“Best known for his intricate sculptures that defy conventional notions of scale and site-specificity, Suh draws attention to the ways viewers occupy and inhabit public space. In several of the artist’s floor sculptures, viewers are encouraged to walk on surfaces composed of thousands of miniature human figures.” PBS Art 21