Do Ho Suh and Suh Architects are pleased to announce their joint collaboration 'Blueprint' in the 12th International Architecture Exhibition for the Venice Biennale. Invited by Kazuyo Sejima to participate in the main exhibition for the 2010 Venice Architecture Biennale "Blueprint' will be exhibited in the Palazzo delle Esposizioni della Biennale. 'Blueprint' is a dialogue between an artist's home, twice-removed, and its past, present, and future silhouette. This dialogue began with two brothers, Do Ho and Eulho Suh (Suh Architects), exploring their notions of home. Beginning with artist Do Ho Suh's current New York address, the collaboration with Suh Architects re-envisions the Hanok in which they grew up together as it arrives in Venice, Italy.
Do Ho Suh's work is a full-scale (1:1 scale) 12.7 meter tall, hand-stitched, translucent fabric facade of the New York townhouse where he presently resides. As part of a series of works recreating the buildings in which he has lived, the artist continues to explore the notion of home in a nomadic, global society. If suspended vertically, the viewer is invited to enter this dream-like drapery building through an entry on the ground floor. Beyond the entry, the viewer then finds himself standing on what appears to be the building's shadow. If suspended horizontally, the townhouse hovers above the viewer, an ephemeral blueprint floating in from New York.
From this cobalt blue 'ceiling', a front stair extends down to the floor where SuhArchitects' 'reflection' begins. This full-scale floor installation is comprised of CNC routed High Pressure Laminate panels upon which viewers are able to walk. The image is a compilation of a section of the artist's original Korean home, his present New York home's facade, and a typical Venetian villa's facade. These three building facades do not merely overlap; they adopt characteristics of one another to emerge as a new composite shadow that reflects three different homes at once.
Thus, by creating a hard, physical imagined 'shadow' that is a reflection of a soft, ephemeral architectural facade, this collaboration questions the boundary between 'real' and reflection, between art and architecture, between where one once was, now is, and soon will be.
About the Collaborators
Do Ho Suh
Do Ho Suh, born in Seoul, Korea in 1962, lives and works in New York and London. He received an BFA and an MFA in Oriental Painting at Seoul National University before going on to pursue a BFA in painting from RISD and a MFA in sculpture from Yale. He has since had solo exhibitions at the Serpentine Gallery, Seattle Art Museum, the Whitney Museum of Art at Phillip Morris, and the Artsonje Center. Interested in the malleability of space in both its physical and metaphorical manifestations, Do Ho Suh constructs site-specific installations that question the boundaries of personal space and identity. His work explores the relation between individuality, collectivity, and anonymity.
Eulho Suh (Suh Architects)
Eulho Suh is the principal and founder of Suh Architects. Receiving his Bachelor of Architecture from RISD and his post-professional degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Suh has practiced extensively in both conceptual and commercial work. During his time at Morphosis Architects and KPF he actualized numerous design competitions and commercial projects. After establishing Suh Architects in 2006, he has completed a range of commercial, recreational, and residential projects, while also serving as consultant for various companies wishing to re-envision their corporate identities and retail facilities.
KyungEn Kim (Suh Architects)
Currently a design principal at Suh Architects, KyungEn Kim arrived at architecture via sculpture. After receiving her undergraduate degree at Wellesley College, she went on to pursue a Masters of Fine Art in Sculpture from RISD. As her installation work began to define inhabitable spaces, she went on to receive her Masters in Architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. In addition to various installation and architectural projects, she currently consults for a children's apparel company and teaches architecture at Yonsei University.
