Do Ho Suh: Works on Paper at STPI
By ArtAsiaPacific
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Do Ho Suh: Works on Paper at STPI, 2021. All images courtesy
Do Ho Suh: Works on Paper at STPI is a survey of the Seoul-born, London-based artist’s extraordinary body of work created during his multiple residencies with STPI since 2009. The A3-sized book contains over 200 highly detailed illustrations, two illuminating essays by Allegra Pesenti and Sarah Suzuki, as well as an intimate reflection by Suh himself in conversation with Martin Coomer.
A sculptor and installation artist, Suh is best known for his full-scale fabric works in which he meticulously reimagines the architectural space of his past homes. With STPI, Suh turned to print and paper as a new medium to channel and re-create these forms. The resulting Thread Drawings, developed using an innovative technique that employs thread as a sculptural material on handmade paper, represent an important breakthrough in Suh’s repertoire.
Through the illustrations, this book further documents Suh’s pastel rubbings (Rubbing / Loving) of interior spaces and everyday objects that disclose and memorialize details of his surroundings. It also contains the detailed Cyanotypes, created from a printing process that articulates familiar images as silhouettes in shades of cyan blue, among other artworks.
While Suh’s articulate thoughts (in conversation with Martin Coomer) on his relationship with STPI provides a penetrating perspective as to how his multiple residencies have deeply affected himself as an artist, the essay by Sarah Suzuki, “Tracing the Thread: Do Ho Suh at STPI,” produces a cogent dissection of Suh’s trajectory and processes with STPI’s Creative Workshop. In another vein, Allegra Pesenti’s piece, “Touching Time: The Rubbings and Recent Works of Do Ho Suh,” is a vivid contextualization of Suh’s enduring artistic exploration of self, identity and home.
To this end, Works on Paper at STPI provides fresh insights as to how we can come to understand the artist’s practice, alongside illustrating the fruitful outcomes stemming from Suh’s and STPI’s long-standing collaboration.
The book is available for purchase at STPI's The Corner Shop online and in person.
Do Ho Suh’s works reflect the transnational dilemma of home and belonging, malleable space and memory, and the boundaries of identity. Suh broke new ground in 2009 creating thread drawings embedded in paper, leading to a long-term collaboration with STPI in developing thread drawings of greater complexity and scale.
Other explorations include lithography, etching, and a continuation of the ongoing project Rubbing / Loving, where everyday objects are covered in paper and rubbed with pastels. These rubbing works act as symbols of memory, as within them the artist preserves his experience of living within spaces of attachment. The series of lithographic works highlight the value of drawing as an artistic form for the site-specific, multimedia artist through the honest and direct engagement with the materials. Finally, a more recent development of Suh’s work is his exquisitely detailed Cyanotypes – a printing process that articulates familiar images as silhouettes in shades of cyan blue, further illuminating ideas of self, identity and home.
Collections worldwide include the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Tate, London; Leeum, Seoul, among many others. He is represented by Lehmann Maupin, New York/Hong Kong and Victoria Miro, London.
STPI Gallery fosters the exchange of ideas in contemporary art with its diverse exhibitions and public program. The gallery hosts specially curated exhibitions of works produced in the STPI Creative Workshop and regularly participates in international art fairs. This enables it to nurture and sustain local and international interest in both its residency artists as well as the mediums of print and paper.
STPI is a creative workshop and contemporary art gallery based in Singapore. Established in 2002, STPI is committed to promoting artistic experimentation in the mediums of print and paper, making it one of the most cutting-edge destinations for contemporary art in Asia. STPI sits alongside National Gallery Singapore and the Singapore Art Museum as part of the national Visual Arts Cluster of leading institutions in the region.
