Do Ho Suh at Victoria Miro Gallery was in my diary for next weekend but when I found myself with some spare time on Saturday late afternoon, I decided to try my luck.
For those of you who’ve been before to the gallery you will know that queuing is on the menu, it just depends for how long. Luckily for me, it wasn’t too bad although I was there for the best part of 90 minutes (60 of those was queuing), so be warned!
Having said all that, this exhibition, entitled: Passage/s is a must see. For anyone who has moved a lot or taken residence in different countries, you’ll be able to identify. Do Ho Suh’s work is about those moments of moving ‘homes’ and what they mean to him. (He was born in Korea, studied in the US, moved to London via Berlin) His ‘translucent fabric structures give form to ideas about migration, transience and shifting identities.’ Rather apt at the moment, given what’s going on in the world.
When you first enter you’ll find Suh has stitched together coloured mesh fabric, recreating the doors and staircases of his past studios and homes in 2D frames. More effective for me was upstairs where his 2D work becomes 3D, real life-size recreations of corridors arranged in pastel-coloured mesh fabrics.
Walking through the fabric sculptures is meant to give you a sense of transitioning but with everyone (including yours truly) snapping away on our mobile phones and cameras, that part was slightly lost for me. I was too fascinated by the details, the beautiful shade of the mesh and admiring the stitching.
Definitely worth returning to, but the thought of queuing yet again will probably put me off. Having said that, while queuing a random group of us started talking to each other – made out of Italians, Romanians, English and me (German). You can imagine what the topic was all about. Yep, Brexit and how we all wish it wasn’t happening.
All works Do Ho Suh – all photography here © Tina Bernstein
Do Ho Suh: Passage/s
Victoria Miro Gallery
16 Wharf Road
London N1 7RW
1 February – 18 March 2017
