Do Ho Suh’s The Perfect Home II at the Brooklyn Museum deals with the sensitive relationship between personal and public space. By using Korean traditional transparent fabric and stitching, he delicately recreated the area where he lived in his New York apartment. It is the shifting of his territory, memory and time into the particular spot. By transferring the space, he created a nomadic place that transcends the general concept of a place that usually is fixed in a specific area and location. Transparent cloth reveals the inside and outside of the image that leads to the transforming of the original spaces that should naturally be heavy and hard looking. Audiences are given a new experience of mixing between in and outside the area and at the same time in the private and public territory. When The Perfect Home II was displayed at the Brooklyn Museum, the work was placed in a wide-open space, and above the piece, there was also wide-open slot existing. By giving this open field, Do ho’s personal space has been successfully put into the public area at the Brooklyn Museum individually to evoke imponderable memory and time of each viewer’s own particular spot and time.
It is very interesting to see a different review on the same show. I love what you said
ReplyDelete"Sensitive relationship between personal and public space." I agree that he mixed and applied well the different culture background with his personal story and general issues about immigration or shifting of territories. But personally, I don't think the Brooklyn Museum did convey Suh's message very well. It is true that the museum gave the open filed, like what you said, but for me, it was still small and not enough to express Suh's memory and idea or either feel directly as a viewer.