Do Ho Suh - Tracing Time at Modern 1, Edinburgh

Do Ho Suh - Home Within Home (detail)

 

Just closed at Modern 1, Edinburgh, Tracing Time looked at how the past, present, and future shape our ideas of home and identity.  Do Ho Suh does not see home as a static place but something that changes as we move through life both geographically and temporally.  It is also affected by how those around us make us feel - whether we are welcomed or made to feel that we don't belong. Do Ho Suh was born in Seoul, South Korea in 1962 and now lives in London.  In the late 1990s he lived, for a time, in New York.  These factors are evident in his work as he addresses migration, loss of belonging and longing for his younger self.

Many of the pieces in this exhibition are Do Ho Suh's thread paintings.  These are stitched onto dissolvable fabric that is then added to the paper making process in the final stages. (The paper is handmade cotton paper). Here the dissolvable fabric disappears and the threads become incorporated into the paper. Loose threads may be be moved into position, using tweezers, to produce the desired effect. It was these pictures that I was particularly interested in.

Blueprint is a representation of the facade of the apartment building he lived in in New York and is one of his thread paintings...

Do Ho Suh - Blueprint
Fabric, thread embedded in handmade cotton paper.

Do Ho Suh - Blueprint (detail)

Below is a picture of Do Ho Suh's traditional hanok home in Seoul where he grew up.  It was unusual as most of his friends grew up in high rise apartments which were part of modernised Seoul.  The house is attached to a person on the ground.  We are told that this picture suggests the artist's identity is shaped by his family home and upbringing...

Do Ho Suh - Self-portrait
Thread embedded in handmade cotton paper

Do Ho Suh - Self-portrait (detail)

This picture replicates the staircase from Do Ho Suh's New York Apartment building.  He worked quickly with 10 assistants with tweezers to get the threads into place...

Do Ho Suh - Staircase/s
Thread embedded in handmade cotton paper

Do Ho Suh - Staircase/s (detail)

These are paper sculptures of the uniforms Do Ho Suh was required to wear at different times of his life in Korea...

Do Ho Suh - Self-portrait/s
Abaca paper, display case with LEDs

Transitional Spaces is a sculpture of the corridor in the apartment he stayed in in Berlin in 2009 (green) and entrance hall to his London home (purple).  They are made using traditional Korean sewing techniques and represent what the artist calls "transitional spaces".  He says "I see life as a passageway with no fixed beginning or destination"...

Do Ho Suh - Transitional Spaces
Polyester fabric and stainless steel

Do Ho Suh - Transitional Spaces (detail)

Below in Do Ho Suh's gelatine piece, he has flattened a 3D space into a 2D representation keeping the scale of the original and much of the mundane detail.  He sees it like a botanical specimen preserving the memory of the space...

Do Ho Suh - Entrance, Unit G5, Union Wharf, 23 Wenlock Road, London, N1 7SB
Thread and gelatine sheet embedded in handmade paper

Do Ho Suh - Entrance, Unit G5, Union Wharf, 23 Wenlock Road, London, N1 7SB (detail)

There were also some really interesting cyanotypes of everyday objects...

Do Ho Suh - Fire Extinguisher-01 - Union Wharf, 23 Wenlock Road, London, N1 7SB
Cyanotype on paper

Do Ho Suh's exhibition was worth seeing for the thread paintings alone.  There's plenty more to see at Modern 1 and 2.  I liked Martin Creed's neon installation on the entrance to Modern 1 - very reassuring or is it?

Martin Creed - EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE ALRIGHT
Blue neon installation

There's a great cafe across the road in Modern 2 with Eduardo Paolozzi's Vulcan striding through - half man, half machine.  You might be able to make out the Cleish Castle Ceiling Panels above (also Paolozzi) which are made from fibreglass resin with aluminium paint.  They mark a phase of abstraction in Paolozzi's work and have been in place since 1999 when what is now Modern 2 opened...

Eduardo Paolozzi - Vulcan
Stainless steel

If you're planning a trip to Edinburgh don't forget to take a look at Modern 1 & 2.  They are also near the Water of Leith if you want to take a stroll.