venice architecture biennale 2010 preview: suh architects + do-ho suh
‘blueprint’ is a collaboration project between Korean artist Do-Ho Suh and Seoul-based practice Suh Architects (Eulho Suh and Kyungen Kim) for this year's international architecture biennale in Venice, Italy. The 12.7m-long installation explores the notion of a home by questioning the boundaries between where one once was, is, and soon will be.
The art piece features two parts: the first is a 1:1 scale reproduction of the New York townhouse where Do-Ho Suh currently resides constructed entirely out of translucent nylon fabric. The hand-stitched recreation is suspended horizontally to hover above the viewer by a system of wires that run from wall to wall. The second part is a floor piece laid directly under the former, seemingly employing the role of shadow to the floating building. Made out of CNC-milled high pressure laminate panels, the piece features a composite image of the artist's original home in Korea, the New York townhouse facade, and a typical venetian villa's facade. The compilation is not merely an overlap of images but a morphing of the three typologies: the industrial brick facade bears a number of gothic-looking windows with lancet arches and decorative railings while the bay window is topped with a style of tiled roof found in traditional Korean hanok houses. The result is a physical shadow of the haunting architectural facade that blurs the line between real and reflection, art and architecture, and the elements of the past, present, and future.