Born in Seoul in 1962, Do Ho Suh first encountered the intimate interplay of architecture and memory in the hanok-style house his father built from salvaged timbers, a structure that inspired Suh’s lifelong fixation on the emotional resonance of built space (The Guardian).
I have had quite a moment with this artists and your filling in the gaps of understanding I was missing. I think because my own protective mechanisms set in, over time I shunned the processing necessary to fully engage.
This is the truth of it: “…works record sensory engagements with space, transforming architecture into a vessel of embodied recollection.”
We ARE in large part of and made by where we have been. The honesty of it is shattering. We are not floating amoebas, self sustaining, self fulfilling, self replicating. Not only do we need ‘other, but we need a place to be in with it. This, given an upbringing of survival, to be stalwart and fixed in ability to adapt, survive, be self sufficient, constitutes an emotional breakdown of those very same ephemeral walls we see here. What is solid? What is self sufficiency in loneliness? Without home? The human condition is treachery. It evades us as it enlists us to participate in it.
No wonder we love our furbabies so much. They provide comfort on our lonely journeys when walls cannot. Maybe we should all go out and live in the woods again? At least then we will know our Place and be equal among them.
You’ve beautifully captured the paradox of being human....how the very mechanisms we develop to SURVIVE can sometimes keep us from fully FEELING. That line about not being floating amoebas....that hits me. We’re shaped by spaces, by losses (really struggling this week), by the presence and absence of others. And yes, in a world that often feels like it asks us to perform self-sufficiency at the cost of connection, the tenderness of our pets curled beside us can feel like the most honest form of sanctuary....
Maybe the woods aren’t such a bad idea after all… at least trees don't lie and we have the woodland creatures for company.
Thank you for sharing this artistic architect! I was not aware of his work. It’s rather profound. From many of our privileged points of view we’ve experienced home as a stable, grounding, permanently safe and geographically fixed (relatively speaking) experience through family. For others not as fortunate, home can be destabilizing, and temporary with very little healthy foundations (potentially despite appearances). That is what i see in some his work, an expression of what home is and can be for a population of persons consciously or unconsciously ignored because acknowledgement would force us to confront the myth of the American dream and other similar narratives that really only apply to some.
Can't wait to see the show at Tate!!😭🤍
I have had quite a moment with this artists and your filling in the gaps of understanding I was missing. I think because my own protective mechanisms set in, over time I shunned the processing necessary to fully engage.
This is the truth of it: “…works record sensory engagements with space, transforming architecture into a vessel of embodied recollection.”
We ARE in large part of and made by where we have been. The honesty of it is shattering. We are not floating amoebas, self sustaining, self fulfilling, self replicating. Not only do we need ‘other, but we need a place to be in with it. This, given an upbringing of survival, to be stalwart and fixed in ability to adapt, survive, be self sufficient, constitutes an emotional breakdown of those very same ephemeral walls we see here. What is solid? What is self sufficiency in loneliness? Without home? The human condition is treachery. It evades us as it enlists us to participate in it.
No wonder we love our furbabies so much. They provide comfort on our lonely journeys when walls cannot. Maybe we should all go out and live in the woods again? At least then we will know our Place and be equal among them.
You’ve beautifully captured the paradox of being human....how the very mechanisms we develop to SURVIVE can sometimes keep us from fully FEELING. That line about not being floating amoebas....that hits me. We’re shaped by spaces, by losses (really struggling this week), by the presence and absence of others. And yes, in a world that often feels like it asks us to perform self-sufficiency at the cost of connection, the tenderness of our pets curled beside us can feel like the most honest form of sanctuary....
Maybe the woods aren’t such a bad idea after all… at least trees don't lie and we have the woodland creatures for company.
☺️
Thank you for sharing this artistic architect! I was not aware of his work. It’s rather profound. From many of our privileged points of view we’ve experienced home as a stable, grounding, permanently safe and geographically fixed (relatively speaking) experience through family. For others not as fortunate, home can be destabilizing, and temporary with very little healthy foundations (potentially despite appearances). That is what i see in some his work, an expression of what home is and can be for a population of persons consciously or unconsciously ignored because acknowledgement would force us to confront the myth of the American dream and other similar narratives that really only apply to some.