Do-Ho Suh

Jessie: Saw this image on an ad in Art Forum and it completely had me intrigued. What were all these little people doing? Were they supporting this person, or straining under his weight ? The ad was for the Indianapolis Museum of Art, and not really that interesting, but the artist is. Do-Ho Suh is a Korean artist who exhibited at the Venice Biennale 2001. This image is part of a room sized installation with a glass floor, under which millions of tiny plastic figures held the floor up. Pretty freakin cool I thought. His work deals with and questions notions of identity and individuality, which probably comes from feeling a disorientation after moving from Korea to the US, as though his is "neither here nor there." In some of his work he has replicated the spaces that he has lived in out of semi transparent fabric, including 348 West 22nd St., Apt A, New York, NY 10011, a full size reproduction of his apartment in Chelsea, right down to the sockets, lightswitches and doorknobs. A bit like one of Oldenburgs soft sculptures?
He has also made a work called Some/One, a traditional Korean robe made from thousands of military dog tags, which you have probably all seen. Love his work.

Pictures from www.forbes.com www.brown.edu/Facilities/David_Winton_Bell_Gallery/suh