Cotton threads on polyester fabric, light switch, pins, painted plywood box
45 x 40 x 5.5 cm [17.7 x 15.7 x 2.2 inches]
Edition of 20, signed and numbered.
About the work
For the Whitechapel Gallery, Do Ho Suh has created a special limited edition entitled Lightswitch, 2018.
Do Ho Suh has a fascination with everyday objects that we touch all the time, such as a light switch. For the edition, Suh has collected used light switches and mounted them on a board. A piece of polyester fabric has then been pinned over each unique object and an extract from Suh’s diary embroidered in rainbow-coloured thread over the top, resulting in a series of works, each exquisitely made and subtly different. Parallels can be drawn between Suh’s thread drawings and his large-scale sculptural installations which recreate intimate dwelling spaces and domestic objects in coloured fabric. These used light switches retain a history of touch having been switched on and off everyday for years. This series is an attempt to highlight these memories and to capture a moment in Suh’s own life through the embroidery.
About the artist
Using his personal peripatetic history, Do Ho Suh (b. 1962, South Korea) creates works which reflect on contemporary arrangement of space and the universalised nomadism of a globalised world. From small-scale thread drawings to large-scale sculptural installations, Suh’s works are always exquisitely made with meticulous attention to detail. Proportionally exact replicas of dwelling places, architectural features, or household appliances; they are constructed much like items of clothing from translucent polyester fabric. Often reflections of places the artist has inhabited, such as his childhood home or Western apartments, these delicately precise, weightless impressions seem to exist between imagination and reality, as portable modules of space, designed to be packed in a suitcase for travelling between continents.
Suh currently lives and works in London.
Selected Exhibitions
Do Ho Suh has staged numerous recent international solo exhibitions and site-specific projects at institutional venues including Frist Centre for the Visual Arts, Nashville, USA (2019); ARoS, Aarhus, Denmark (2019); Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, USA (2018); Bildmuseet, Sweden (2018); Contemporary Arts Centre, Cincinnati (2016); MOCA Cleveland (2015 - 2016), travelling to MCA San Diego (2016); The Contemporary Austin, Texas (2014); National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea (2013); 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan (2012 - 2013 and 2005); Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima, Japan (2012); University of San Diego, California (2012); Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea (2012); Seattle Art Museum, Washington (2011 and 2003) and Tate Modern, London (2011). Suh's work is included in numerous museum collections worldwide.
Whitechapel Gallery editions are generously donated by the artists. All proceeds from the sale of these works directly support our exhibition and education programmes. As is traditional in editions publishing, prices will rise as an edition starts to sell out.
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