A leading Korean artist’s poignant vision of individuality and collectivity
Do-Ho Suh’s work Floor (1997-2000) consists of sheets of glass supported by the raised hands of 180,000 miniature plastic figures representing both sexes and different races. Although fragile entities in themselves, together the tightly packed figures were capable of supporting the weight of the viewers who walked across the piece. The work suggested the tension between a national identity built upon a culture of individuality, as in the US, and one that celebrates the collective, as in Korea.
The exhibition also included the artist’s large-scale textile pieces – a series of interior spaces rendered in diaphanous silk and nylon based on the interiors of his homes in both Korea and New York. A scaled, sea-green, silk replica of his family’s traditional eighteenth-century Korean home was suspended in the Serpentine’s North Gallery. The artist’s sculptural and architectural installations reveal his exploration of issues of place and identity through his experiences in both his native Korea and adopted countries including the United States.
