The South Korean artist Do Ho Suh, is a perfect complement to ‘Freespace’, the theme of the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale. His fascination with rendering the built environment appears to suggest both form and memory in his work, which straddles drawing and sculpture. Victoria Miro gallery’s exhibition in Venice is the result of a three-year residency at the STPI Creative Workshop, Singapore, in which Suh created rubbings of everyday objects and interior spaces from his personal surroundings.
The delicacy and fragility of the objects, which form his on-going project, ‘Rubbing/Loving’ is compelling. To make the work he stretches paper over everyday objects such as pipes, light switches, a hairdryer and telephone, and then rubs colour into the surface. The paper pieces, which have been described as epidermis – a second or surrogate skin – create molds which contains no objects just an outline of what was there.
In addition to the sculptures, Suh was invited by the V&A, London to make a response to the architecture and interior of Robin Hood Gardens, an internationally recognised social housing estate designed by the architects Alison and Peter Smithson in East London. The work forms part of the exhibition ‘Robin Hood Gardens: A Ruin in Reverse’, (Pavilion of Applied Arts, Venice) which takes its name from the renowned American artist Robert Smithson’s writings, who described buildings in construction on the outskirts of New York as ultimately ending up as ruins, a comment on the short life span of architecture.
The film records four of the interior flats, through vertical and horizontal pans representing both time and space, all the more urgent as the flats are in the process of demolition. Perhaps a mediation not only on the heated issue of social housing but architecture’s ephemerality and ability to linger in our memories.§
See all the latest news and stories from Venice Architecture Biennale here
‘Rubbing / Loving, STPI, Artist Studio 35, 41 Robertson Quay, Singapore 238236, 2017’ by Do Ho Suh. courtesy of the artist, STPI and Victoria Miro, London/Venice
‘Rubbing / Loving, STPI, Corridor 4-03, 41 Robertson Quay, Singapore 238236, 2017’ by Do Ho Suh. courtesy of the artist, STPI and Victoria Miro, London/Venice
‘Rubbing / Loving, STPI, Artist Studio 61, 41 Robertson Quay, Singapore 238239 (detail), 2017’ by Do Ho Suh. courtesy of the artist, STPI and Victoria Miro, London/Venice
INFORMATION
’Do Ho Suh’ is on at Victoria Miro in Venice until the 7th July 2018. For more information visit the gallery’s website
ADDRESS
Victoria Miro
Venice Il Capricorno
San Marco, 1994
30124 Venice
-
Own an early John Lautner, perched in LA’s Echo Park hillsThe restored and updated Jules Salkin Residence by John Lautner is a unique piece of Californian design heritage, an early private house by the Frank Lloyd Wright acolyte that points to his future iconic status
-
20 things that positively delighted us in and around Design Miami this yearFrom covetable 20th-century masterpieces to a tower made from ceramic pickles, these were the works that stood out amid the blur of Art Week
-
Montcalm Mayfair opens a new chapter for a once-overlooked London hotelA thoughtful reinvention brings craftsmanship, character and an unexpected sense of warmth to a London hotel that was never previously on the radar
-
Modernist Palazzo Mondadori’s workspace gets a playful Carlo Ratti refreshArchitect Carlo Ratti reimagines the offices in Palazzo Mondadori, the seminal work by Brazilian master Oscar Niemeyer in Milan
-
Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu to curate the 2027 Venice Architecture BiennaleChinese architects Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu have been revealed as the curators of the 2027 Venice Architecture Biennale
-
At the Holcim Foundation Forum and its Grand Prizes, sustainability is both urgent and hopefulThe Holcim Foundation Forum just took place in Venice, culminating in the announcement of the organisation's Grand Prizes, the projects especially honoured among 20 previously announced winning designs
-
Carlo Ratti reflects on his bold Venice Architecture Biennale as it closes this weekendThe Venice Architecture Biennale opens with excitement and fanfare every two years; as the 2025 edition draws to a close, we take stock with its curator Carlo Ratti and ask him, what next?
-
Step inside Casa Moncler, the brand’s sustainable and highly creative Milanese HQCasa Moncler opens its doors in a masterfully reimagined Milanese industrial site, blending modern minimalism and heritage, courtesy of ACPV Architects Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel
-
Aldo Frattini Bivouac is a mountain shelter, but not as you know itA new mountain shelter on the northern Italian pre-Alp region of Val Seriana, Aldo Frattini Bivouac is an experimental and aesthetically rich, compact piece of architecture
-
The 2026 Winter Olympics Village is complete. Take a look insideAhead of the 2026 Winter Olympics, taking place in Milan in February, the new Olympic Village Plaza is set to be a bustling community hub, designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
-
Anish Kapoor designs Naples station as a reflection of ‘what it really means to go underground’A new Naples station by artist Anish Kapoor blends art and architecture, while creating an important piece of infrastructure for the southern Italian city
