[Gallery Walk] Calling Do Ho Suh an 'Artist Who Builds Homes' Is Only Half True

Over 500 Works from 30 Years Gathered at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art
From Foldable Rooms to Pockets Filled with Family Memories
How the Question of "Home" Has Changed for Do Ho Suh at Age 64

The easiest way to describe Do Ho Suh (64) is as an "artist who builds houses." This isn’t inaccurate, but the problem is that it is almost too convenient. He is a Korean artist who reconstructs the homes he has lived in across Seoul, New York, and London with colorful fabric in life-size form; an internationally renowned installation artist recognized by prominent museums abroad. But after seeing more than 500 pieces spanning over 30 years of his work at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul on the 26th, this familiar explanation started to seem a bit lazy. Do Ho Suh is less someone who has simply made houses, and more someone who has persistently questioned, for the past 30 years, the very idea of "What is a home?" The exhibition will open to the public on the 27th.

Artist Do-Ho Suh is answering questions at the press conference for his solo exhibition held on the 26th at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Jongno-gu, Seoul. Photo by Yonhap News Agency

Two years ago, in fact, this artist removed houses altogether from his work. That was at his solo exhibition "Speculations" at Art Sonje Center. Not a single fabric house, the element long associated with Do Ho Suh, was present. At the time, he explained that although these fabric works had come to represent him, "they are only the tip of the iceberg." Instead, he presented models, blueprints, and drawings inspired by the question "What if." It sounded almost like a protest against being seen solely as someone who makes houses.

But at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art two years later, the situation is the complete opposite. Houses have returned—on a massive scale. "Nest/Fields" alone stretches 22 meters, connecting the doors, rooms, and corridors of homes he lived in across Seoul, New York, London, and Berlin. Its vibrant cloth architecture makes it ideal for photography. Yet, this house has no address, because it is a structure that does not exist in reality. Corridors and doors from different cities are fused into a single unit. Although the houses have been faithfully reconstructed, the result is a home that does not exist—a mischievous twist in true Do Ho Suh fashion.

On the 26th, attendees are examining the exhibition works during the press conference for Do-Ho Suh's solo exhibition held at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Jongno-gu, Seoul. Photo by Yonhap News

"Perfect Home: London, Horsham, New York, Berlin, Providence, Seoul" takes this even further. The artist has recreated, at full scale, the house he currently lives in in London, and overlaid it with locks, faucets, light switches, and outlets from six of his past homes, all at once. Contrary to its title, "Perfect Home," the result is a house any real estate agent would find perplexing. There’s simply no way to explain which country or address it is from, because, as with memories accumulated over a lifetime in different homes, they are haphazardly superimposed atop one another.

At this point, one is drawn back to a piece from 32 years ago near the entrance of the exhibition: "Room 516/Room 516-I/Room 516-II" (1994–1995), created while studying in the United States. Here, Suh meticulously measured and recreated his own room from muslin, complete with a zipper. He crafted what should have been a fixed architectural space into wearable clothing, so it could be folded up and carried elsewhere. This was the opening chapter in the story of the iconic fabric houses that would later make Do Ho Suh famous. For a young student, the question was simply: "Can I carry my home with me?"

Perfect Home: London, Horsham, New York, Berlin, Providence, Seoul (2024). Do Ho Suh created a work by superimposing details such as door handles, switches, and outlets from the homes he has lived in different cities onto the structure of his current residence in London. Memories from different times and places overlap within a single home. National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art

But for Do Ho Suh at 64, the idea of home seems to have become something a little different. In "Rubbing/Loving," he attaches paper to the walls, doors, and windows of the hanok he lived in as a child in Seongbuk-dong and rubs them by hand to capture their surfaces. "Rubbing" and "loving"—the double meaning is intentional. The artist described "Rubbing/Loving: Seoul Home" as a dual self-portrait of himself and his father. The person who once sought to carry his entire home now traces and leaves marks on its skin, a lingering touch. The work, which began with his own home, now extends to public housing facing demolition in London’s "Robin Hood Garden." It’s no longer just individual memories that matter, but also the disappearance of others’ memories that becomes the problem.

This is why a newly created work—one that is far smaller in scale than most, but lingers longest—stands out. "Memory of Love" (2026): Do Ho Suh has sewn dozens of pockets taken from his family members’ clothes into the lining of his own coat, each holding a small, personal item connected to his family. This exhibition marks the first showing of his work on fatherly love. In a sense, the 22-meter-long house has now shrunk down to pockets inside a coat. Such is the range within this single exhibition.

‘Apartment A, Hallway and Stairs, 348 West 22nd Street, New York, NY 10011 (Kanazawa Version)’ (2012). Doho Suh recreated the hallway and stairs of the apartment he lived in New York with life-sized translucent fabric. The entire unit will be exhibited at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Seoul Box starting December 18. Photo by Taeksu Jeon, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art.

This evolution also prompts a reconsideration of the long-standing narratives that have followed Do Ho Suh—such as "nomad," "migration and identity." While not inaccurate—after all, he grew up in Seoul, studied in the United States, and lived in New York, Berlin, and London, so his relationship with home has always begun with movement—this exhibition suggests that at age 64, Suh is just as interested in what follows after leaving as he is in leaving itself: family, other people, lost places, and memories imprinted on the body. Labeling him simply as an "artist of migration" no longer captures the full extent of what he now carries with him.

Outside the exhibition hall, the "Seed Bank" contains objects created before he became the now-famous "Do Ho Suh": wood carvings from his childhood, and works from his university graduation. Not far from this is "Room 516" from 1994, its room fitted with a zipper—made to be folded up and taken away. Thirty-two years later, at the end of the exhibition, the coat is fitted with his family’s pockets.

‘Robin Hood Garden, Ulmore Street, 408 409 London E14 0HG’ (2018). A video work documenting Robin Hood Garden, a public housing complex in London scheduled for demolition. Seo Doho’s perspective, starting from a private home, expands to the disappearing communal spaces and memories. National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art

The man who once departed carrying his home now wears the memories of people on his body. Between these two artifacts lies 30 years of Do Ho Suh’s work.

The exhibition runs until February 9, 2027. Starting December 18, the complete life-size unit of "Apartment A...", which recreates the hallway and stairs from his time living in New York, will be unveiled for the first time in one place at the Seoul Box.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.