Do Ho Suh: In Process

This innovative, elegantly assembled show of the South Korean artist gives us a glimpse into the ideas and methods that underpin his research-based, explorative and collaborative works

Do Ho Suh: In Process, installation view, Moody Center for the Arts, Rice University, Houston, Texas, 6 September – 21 December 2024. Photo: Anthony Rathbun.

Moody Center for the Arts, Rice University, Houston, Texas
6 September – 21 December 2024

by LILLY WEI

Process figures often in the discussion about art, but how often is an exhibition dedicated to it? And how often do artists want to reveal the bare bones of their process, which can be deeply personal and feel a bit like undressing in public? Do Ho Suh, it seems, is such an artist and Do Ho Suh: In Process is such an exhibition, premised on the unfinished and the continuing. It is a kind of conjecturing out loud addressed to viewers who are curious about how things are made (and to those who do not yet know that they are). The brainchild of Alison Weaver, the executive director of the Moody Center of the Arts at Rice University, Houston, and curator of this innovative, elegantly assembled show, it could be overwhelming, but it is not, thanks to its carefully arranged presentation. Weaver asked the internationally celebrated South Korean artist – known for his ethereal, ravishingly beautiful “soft” sculptures of rooms, facades, staircases and entire buildings constructed from translucent fabric – if he would be interested in doing such a project. Suh responded by saying that he had never done anything quite like that before and agreed to do it. As a process-driven artist, it was something he had long wanted to do, he said.

The interdisciplinary exhibition approached his practice from several perspectives, giving us a glimpse of its breadth and the countless facets that go into his projects, including how research-based, explorative and collaborative they are and how long he lets his ideas percolate, the ideas continuing, the resolutions considered and reconsidered, re-envisioned. His throughline is centred on home, where it is, what it is, whose it is, nomadism, displacement, recuperation and restoration, and with that, family and community. It is not easy to chart a mind at work or a process, as it deals with constantly evolving concepts, materials, forms, techniques and more.

Do Ho Suh. Untitled (Bridge Project), 2003-ongoing. Concept rendering. © Do Ho Suh. Courtesy of the artist; Lehmann Maupin, New York and Seoul; Victoria Miro, London/Venice.

At the heart of this exhibition is The Bridge Project. It was initiated in 2010 when Suh began to explore the concept of an imaginary bridge that would connect Seoul and New York, the two places he then called home, the current version expanded to include London, working in collaboration with engineers, architects and designers to investigate how it might be built and what it might look like. (It made me think of Martin Kippenberger’s 1992 Metro-Net system, another equally impossible dream – at least for now – about a global subway to connect the world).

Installation view, Do Ho Suh: In Process, Moody Center for the Arts, Rice University, Houston, Texas, 6 September – 21 December 2024. Photo: Anthony Rathbun.

At the Moody, Rice engineering students as well as students from other disciplines were invited to probe other possible outcomes for this project, their drawings and models displayed with Suh’s drawings as well as the videos he made for the project that further detailed and clarified his thinking. One suggestion I particularly liked for its ingenious, low-impact design was based on flotation devices. The bridge’s recent iteration includes a “perfect home” built at its midpoint in the Arctic Ocean’s Beaufort Sea and Nic’s, a retro diner that is a stop on the way. Nic’s is featured in a stop-motion animation, the storyboards and miniaturised models on display here, furnished as a diner should be and stocked with everything it should have, from tiny sandwiches and slices of pie to a full pot of coffee and bags of potato chips ($1.50 each!).

Do Ho Suh, Gate, 2014–24. Installation view, Do Ho Suh: In Process, Moody Center for the Arts, Rice University, Houston, Texas, 6 September – 21 December 2024. Photo: Anthony Rathbun.

Another major work here is Gate (2014-24), consisting of rubbings from the stately Seoul home in which he was raised, a recurrent subject. It is in sections, hung on the wall like puzzle pieces, still enclosed in their crates, measuring approximately 6 metres by 4.6 metres (20ft by 15ft). The entryway was built by his father, also an artist, in the style of traditional Korean architecture. (On view at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston is Portal (2015) is a freestanding, full-scale sculpture of it made of translucent acrylic resin, light bouncing through and off it, appearing like an apparition, a luminous ghost door, something remembered from a dream.)

Do Ho Suh. Blueprint, 2010. Polyester fabric, stainless steel tubes, laminate panel, approximately: 1330 x 635 x 337cm. © Do Ho Suh and Suh Architects. Courtesy of the artist; Lehmann Maupin, New York and Seoul; Victoria Miro, London/Venice. Installation view at Venice Biennale 2010, 12th International Architecture Exhibition and Leeum Museum of Art, 2012. Photo at Leeum Museum of Art by Kim Hyun Soo.

Blueprint (2010) was created for the Venice Architecture Biennale of that year in collaboration with his brother, an architect. A 1:1 scaled electric-cobalt-blue replica of the facade of his New York townhouse, it is part of a continuing series recreating buildings where Suh has lived. The sheer, handstitched fabric is suspended from the ceiling as it is unfurled from its crate, like an enormous canopy, a novel way of showing it that Weaver said is intended to emphasise its identity as an object.

Do Ho Suh, Inverted Monument, 2022. Installation view, Do Ho Suh: In Process, Moody Center for the Arts, Rice University, Houston, Texas, 6 September – 21 December 2024. Photo: Anthony Rathbun.

Close by is the red (sanguine?) of Inverted Monument (2022), the blue and red creating a striking contrast. An imposing tiered pedestal, it is woven out of extruded plastic fibres (samples made from it have been placed on a nearby shelf). Minus its statue, it looks incomplete but on closer inspection, the hero can be seen caged inside, flipped upside down, one of Suh’s series of counter-monuments that re-examines the ideologies of memorials and monuments (similar to Public Figures (1998-2023), a sculpture commissioned by the National Museum of Asian Art in Washington DC and on view until 2029, the empty plinth there raised slightly off the ground by the massing of uncountable little figures under it.) The reassessing and upending of monumental public art is an even more topical subject now, with widespread destruction across Syria of images commemorating the brutal Assad regime after its downfall, tumultuous upheavals not such a distant memory for South Koreans, not to mention the recent attempt to implement martial law there.

Do Ho Suh. Artland, 2016-ongoing. Children’s modelling clay, recycled plastics, polycarbonate base, dimensions variable. © Do Ho Suh. Courtesy of the artist; Lehmann Maupin, New York and Seoul; Victoria Miro, London/Venice Artland Islands: Photo: Prudence Cuming.

The exhibition also features Suh’s more playful side. Artland started as a family activity around a kitchen table with his two young daughters about a decade ago. Since then, the venture picturing an alternative, ecologically mindful fantasy world has become increasingly extravagant, occupying several tabletops here, and explosive with colour, this version from the 2024 installation at the Brooklyn Museum. The many fanciful objects are made from clay, the design in constant transformation as viewers add to it.

Installation view, Do Ho Suh: In Process, Moody Center for the Arts, Rice University, Houston, Texas, 6 September – 21 December 2024. Photo: Anthony Rathbun.

The last section of the exhibition consists of rows and rows of shelving that stretch across one of the gallery’s long walls. They hold a seemingly infinite number of diminutive objects from Suh’s collections, the assortment dizzyingly eclectic, including anime figures and those from the Marvel universe, all kinds of critters, and so forth. They are precious to him, kept in little bags inside containers that are now stacked on the floor beneath the shelves, everything meticulously labelled. (Suh could probably give pointers to the organising guru Marie Kondo). Weaver said the many recognisable figurines provide viewers with another entry point into the show, “de-monumentalising” the experience. I see them as visual references for the artist, as a dictionary, a thesaurus or an intriguing phrase is a verbal resource for a writer, a springboard to spur the imagination, a resource for future usage.

Assorted figures and models from the artist’s studio. Installation view, Do Ho Suh: In Process, Moody Center for the Arts, Rice University, Houston, Texas, 6 September – 21 December 2024. Photo: Anthony Rathbun.

While it is always an immense pleasure to see one of his breathtaking, mirage-like architectural recreations formally installed, this exhibition tells us another story that is more hands-on, more tangible, and as satisfying in its own way. It is like having the run of Suh’s studio, looking into his files, drawers, closets, storage rooms, into his headspace, a rare privilege – and the best studio visit imaginable.