Immediate Response
When looking at Do Ho Suh’s “Home Within Home”, I am foremost stunned by the scale of the piece. The scale of the room in which the work is housed as well as the elevated local of the piece contributes greatly to capturing my eye as I scroll past the piece on Suh’s website. The contrast of color between the vibrant yellows and oranges of the higher structure and the deep blue of the lower structure pulls my eye from the bottom of the work to the top right. My initial feeling is one of the supernatural as the piece seems to be spiritual or ghostlike due to its translucent appearance.
Objective Description
The location of the work is the Incheon International Airport in South Korea, one of the most high-traffic airports in the world. The piece is comprised of two traditional Korean homes stacked on top of each other. Both structures are suspended from the ceiling, but rather than be timber frame buildings, the two homes are constructed from polyester fabric and stainless steel cables in a way that creates a unique translucent 3-dimensional work. The lower of the two structures is a deep blue throughout while the upper structure is divided into four quadrants with each partition either a bright yellow or a vibrant orange. Both homes seem to be identical in their details with the higher one having been scaled roughly two times larger than the bottom.
Technical Decisions
The construction of Home Within Home is of great significance to its meaning. Suh made deliberate decisions in every aspect of constructing this piece especially in choosing to suspend the work. The act of suspension often leads to free-moving pieces that shift with airflow or human interaction. This is not the case with Suh’s piece as he went a step further with his design and wove the polyester fabric in various sections of the homes to provide an element of stability and rigidity in the structures. Specifically, around areas of high detail, Suh found it necessary to add a higher level of stability: This is evident in the door, window, and roof-line areas.
The presentation of Home Within Home is both connected to the translucent nature of the piece itself and also the location of the exhibit. Choosing to display this work in a massive airport terminal gives a sense of scale that would be remiss in a smaller location. In this terminal, observers witness the sculpture from various angles, up on a balcony, on the escalator, walking through to the gates, and seated. The translucent appearance of the piece changes the look of the work from these viewpoints as well. Those on the balcony can largely see through the entire piece while those on the ground can only get a tailored view of the corner but with the translucency it opens the invisible corners, from certain points, to be seen.
The Work in the World
Throughout my education before college, I attended schools with roughly 75% international boarding student population. This abundance of students from outside of the United States was largely dominated by kids from Japan, China, and South Korea. What I came to understand from many of my classmates was that attending school in different countries takes many tolls on your emotional well-being and relationship with your family. The change in culture was expressed as one of the most jarring things for many of my peers, simply transitioning from the city, as many were from Seoul (the capital of South Korea and one of the busiest cities in the world), to the countryside of rural Connecticut was not easy to do. Often for extended school vacations, my classmates would take a four-hour car ride to an international airport to then fly fourteen or so hours home to see their families. I would imagine that after landing at Incheon International Airport, as many of them did, the relief of finally being home was overwhelming for some, and I would not be surprised if Suh recognizes this feeling considering the overwhelming number of students studying in the United States continues to rise.
The Story it Tells
In the 1950s, Korea experienced fierce infighting on the peninsula which led to a full-scale conflict in which the United States and other allies got involved. While this is a prime example of Korea fighting to preserve itself, the Korean peninsula has been under the eyes of every major nation for hundreds of years, ultimately suffering at least 900 invasions in roughly 2,000 years of existence. This constant struggle has led to an overwhelming sense of kinship despite the amount of culture lost in these many attacks, occupancies, and wars. Suh’s piece Home Within Home has several underlying meanings, yet what seems most significant is the traditional style of both houses in the piece. It seems that Suh is trying to articulate that Korean culture is still strong through anything and everything, and that the Korean people can always be proud of who they are and what they came from. The woven nature of the piece indicates that although Korean culture is woven within the culture of invaders, it still combines to create something beautiful that many call, and are proud to call, home.