Seoul Home/L.A. Home/New York Home/Baltimore Home/London Home/Seattle Home/L.A. Home, 1999
- Medium
- Silk and metal armatures
- Dimensions
- 149 x 240 x 240 in. (378.5 x 609.6 x 609.6 cm)
- Accession Number
- 99.31
- Credit
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
Purchase with funds provided by an anonymous donor and a gift of the artist
Do-Ho Suh is well known for his large-scale architectural installations in fabric, often facsimiles of homes he has lived in. This work was inspired by his longing for his childhood home in Seoul following his move to New York City. Using translucent silk in celadon green, Suh meticulously replicated the details of the traditional Korean hanok he grew up in, creating a ghostlike (or dreamlike) presence of the house, hovering high above the gallery space. By transforming architectural structures into ephemeral transportable sculptures, the artist evokes the fleeting nature of memories, particularly in the context of his own experience of migration and displacement, while also conjuring that home can travel with us—a concept echoed by the evolving artwork title. Each time the sculpture is exhibited, the location is added to the title, thereby becoming an index of its past lives.