What makes a building a home? Do Ho Suh investigates memory and space at the Tate Modern
By
Rhea Mathur
May 13, 2025
“In-betweenness is a fundamental condition of our times”, wrote postcolonial scholar Homi K. Bhabha in his seminal work, The Location of Culture (1994). His text focuses on the complexities of cultural interaction in a globalised world and the plurality of human identity in such a world. Bhabha’s ideas are echoed in Do Ho Suh’s Walk the House (1 May - 19 October 2025) at Tate Modern, a retrospective that looks at three decades of the artist’s practice, documenting the personal and psychological impact of living in a globalised world.
My Homes (2010) is made from thread embedded in paper and encapsulates this idea of movement and a home in multiple countries. However, his stress is not on multiple homes but on one home in motion. He illustrates this idea with multicoloured threadwork, drawing a house with legs in motion while smoke rises from its chimney, signalling that someone is inside this moving home. Next to this is a tiny house with wings and another designed like the top of a parachute for a person gliding through the sky, with the words ‘paratrooper’ written with thread beneath the figure. Suh conceptualises the home as a moving figure through his many ideas, from a house with wheels to one on top of a boat. His canvas is riddled with names of cities he has called home at various points in his life, such as LA, NY, Seoul and London, along with the words ‘running home’ written in red thread.
This work is also reminiscent of the Korean expression ‘Walk the house’, which this exhibition is named after. Suh remembers overhearing carpenters who constructed his childhood home in Seoul use this expression when he was a young boy. The building was known as a ‘hanok’, a home that can be easily disassembled and rebuilt in an alternate location. It also signals an ease in transporting not just the facade of the building but the emotional and symbolic aspects of a space that make it into a home. For Suh, this movement means carrying memory with you through spaces. He says, “memory amalgamates in these spaces and memories shape our perceptions of them. Yet, they’re not stagnant. They’re not foreclosed environments in my work. They’re transportable, breathable”.
Tate’s exhibition includes Suh’s recreation of this childhood home titled Rubbing/Loving: Seoul Home, made between 2013 and 2022. Suh’s labour-intensive artistic process includes covering the house with mulberry paper and tracing each detail onto the paper with graphite. He also records this process for viewers to understand, and this video accompanies this installation, helping people realise the true extent of his labour. This process of ‘rubbing graphite’ is also central to his practice and is described by the artist as a ‘loving gesture’.
Born in Seoul in 1962, the artist moved to the United States in 1991, receiving his Bachelor’s in Fine Arts at the Rhode Island School of Design. He then moved to New Haven to complete his MFA in sculpture from Yale University. Suh undertook this move to the US from South Korea not as a child but as an adult on whom his native land had left an indelible mark. Bringing his own culture, traditions, and way of life to the US, the artist experienced a hybridity in his identity that gave way to many of the works in this exhibition.
“I want to carry my home, my house, with me at all times, like a snail”, Suh says, and he illustrates this idea in all his works in this exhibition, from the large-scale installations to the smaller, detailed canvas paintings. In Haunting Home (2019), multicoloured threads tie together the body of a man running and his home that floats with him as he runs. The body and the home are symbolically and physically tied to each other, where each fraction of his being results in a part of his home, as through the memories and traditions that build his home are also the building blocks for his identity.
For Suh, ‘Home’ is more than just a physical space; it is a collection of memories and emotions that he yearns to preserve. What happens in the space is also a marker for a specific time and place in this globalised world, where the exterior architecture and conversations in the home are all tied to the cultural identity of that place at that time. Suh’s homes capture time and space, preserving memories and recording our past; however, almost simultaneously, they are an act of letting go.
“In-betweenness is a fundamental condition of our times”, wrote postcolonial scholar Homi K. Bhabha in his seminal work, The Location of Culture (1994). His text focuses on the complexities of cultural interaction in a globalised world and the plurality of human identity in such a world. Bhabha’s ideas are echoed in Do Ho Suh’s Walk the House (1 May - 19 October 2025) at Tate Modern, a retrospective that looks at three decades of the artist’s practice, documenting the personal and psychological impact of living in a globalised world.
My Homes (2010) is made from thread embedded in paper and encapsulates this idea of movement and a home in multiple countries. However, his stress is not on multiple homes but on one home in motion. He illustrates this idea with multicoloured threadwork, drawing a house with legs in motion while smoke rises from its chimney, signalling that someone is inside this moving home. Next to this is a tiny house with wings and another designed like the top of a parachute for a person gliding through the sky, with the words ‘paratrooper’ written with thread beneath the figure. Suh conceptualises the home as a moving figure through his many ideas, from a house with wheels to one on top of a boat. His canvas is riddled with names of cities he has called home at various points in his life, such as LA, NY, Seoul and London, along with the words ‘running home’ written in red thread.
This work is also reminiscent of the Korean expression ‘Walk the house’, which this exhibition is named after. Suh remembers overhearing carpenters who constructed his childhood home in Seoul use this expression when he was a young boy. The building was known as a ‘hanok’, a home that can be easily disassembled and rebuilt in an alternate location. It also signals an ease in transporting not just the facade of the building but the emotional and symbolic aspects of a space that make it into a home. For Suh, this movement means carrying memory with you through spaces. He says, “memory amalgamates in these spaces and memories shape our perceptions of them. Yet, they’re not stagnant. They’re not foreclosed environments in my work. They’re transportable, breathable”.
Tate’s exhibition includes Suh’s recreation of this childhood home titled Rubbing/Loving: Seoul Home, made between 2013 and 2022. Suh’s labour-intensive artistic process includes covering the house with mulberry paper and tracing each detail onto the paper with graphite. He also records this process for viewers to understand, and this video accompanies this installation, helping people realise the true extent of his labour. This process of ‘rubbing graphite’ is also central to his practice and is described by the artist as a ‘loving gesture’.
Born in Seoul in 1962, the artist moved to the United States in 1991, receiving his Bachelor’s in Fine Arts at the Rhode Island School of Design. He then moved to New Haven to complete his MFA in sculpture from Yale University. Suh undertook this move to the US from South Korea not as a child but as an adult on whom his native land had left an indelible mark. Bringing his own culture, traditions, and way of life to the US, the artist experienced a hybridity in his identity that gave way to many of the works in this exhibition.
“I want to carry my home, my house, with me at all times, like a snail”, Suh says, and he illustrates this idea in all his works in this exhibition, from the large-scale installations to the smaller, detailed canvas paintings. In Haunting Home (2019), multicoloured threads tie together the body of a man running and his home that floats with him as he runs. The body and the home are symbolically and physically tied to each other, where each fraction of his being results in a part of his home, as through the memories and traditions that build his home are also the building blocks for his identity.
For Suh, ‘Home’ is more than just a physical space; it is a collection of memories and emotions that he yearns to preserve. What happens in the space is also a marker for a specific time and place in this globalised world, where the exterior architecture and conversations in the home are all tied to the cultural identity of that place at that time. Suh’s homes capture time and space, preserving memories and recording our past; however, almost simultaneously, they are an act of letting go.
“In-betweenness is a fundamental condition of our times”, wrote postcolonial scholar Homi K. Bhabha in his seminal work, The Location of Culture (1994). His text focuses on the complexities of cultural interaction in a globalised world and the plurality of human identity in such a world. Bhabha’s ideas are echoed in Do Ho Suh’s Walk the House (1 May - 19 October 2025) at Tate Modern, a retrospective that looks at three decades of the artist’s practice, documenting the personal and psychological impact of living in a globalised world.
My Homes (2010) is made from thread embedded in paper and encapsulates this idea of movement and a home in multiple countries. However, his stress is not on multiple homes but on one home in motion. He illustrates this idea with multicoloured threadwork, drawing a house with legs in motion while smoke rises from its chimney, signalling that someone is inside this moving home. Next to this is a tiny house with wings and another designed like the top of a parachute for a person gliding through the sky, with the words ‘paratrooper’ written with thread beneath the figure. Suh conceptualises the home as a moving figure through his many ideas, from a house with wheels to one on top of a boat. His canvas is riddled with names of cities he has called home at various points in his life, such as LA, NY, Seoul and London, along with the words ‘running home’ written in red thread.
This work is also reminiscent of the Korean expression ‘Walk the house’, which this exhibition is named after. Suh remembers overhearing carpenters who constructed his childhood home in Seoul use this expression when he was a young boy. The building was known as a ‘hanok’, a home that can be easily disassembled and rebuilt in an alternate location. It also signals an ease in transporting not just the facade of the building but the emotional and symbolic aspects of a space that make it into a home. For Suh, this movement means carrying memory with you through spaces. He says, “memory amalgamates in these spaces and memories shape our perceptions of them. Yet, they’re not stagnant. They’re not foreclosed environments in my work. They’re transportable, breathable”.
Tate’s exhibition includes Suh’s recreation of this childhood home titled Rubbing/Loving: Seoul Home, made between 2013 and 2022. Suh’s labour-intensive artistic process includes covering the house with mulberry paper and tracing each detail onto the paper with graphite. He also records this process for viewers to understand, and this video accompanies this installation, helping people realise the true extent of his labour. This process of ‘rubbing graphite’ is also central to his practice and is described by the artist as a ‘loving gesture’.
Born in Seoul in 1962, the artist moved to the United States in 1991, receiving his Bachelor’s in Fine Arts at the Rhode Island School of Design. He then moved to New Haven to complete his MFA in sculpture from Yale University. Suh undertook this move to the US from South Korea not as a child but as an adult on whom his native land had left an indelible mark. Bringing his own culture, traditions, and way of life to the US, the artist experienced a hybridity in his identity that gave way to many of the works in this exhibition.
“I want to carry my home, my house, with me at all times, like a snail”, Suh says, and he illustrates this idea in all his works in this exhibition, from the large-scale installations to the smaller, detailed canvas paintings. In Haunting Home (2019), multicoloured threads tie together the body of a man running and his home that floats with him as he runs. The body and the home are symbolically and physically tied to each other, where each fraction of his being results in a part of his home, as through the memories and traditions that build his home are also the building blocks for his identity.
For Suh, ‘Home’ is more than just a physical space; it is a collection of memories and emotions that he yearns to preserve. What happens in the space is also a marker for a specific time and place in this globalised world, where the exterior architecture and conversations in the home are all tied to the cultural identity of that place at that time. Suh’s homes capture time and space, preserving memories and recording our past; however, almost simultaneously, they are an act of letting go.
“In-betweenness is a fundamental condition of our times”, wrote postcolonial scholar Homi K. Bhabha in his seminal work, The Location of Culture (1994). His text focuses on the complexities of cultural interaction in a globalised world and the plurality of human identity in such a world. Bhabha’s ideas are echoed in Do Ho Suh’s Walk the House (1 May - 19 October 2025) at Tate Modern, a retrospective that looks at three decades of the artist’s practice, documenting the personal and psychological impact of living in a globalised world.
My Homes (2010) is made from thread embedded in paper and encapsulates this idea of movement and a home in multiple countries. However, his stress is not on multiple homes but on one home in motion. He illustrates this idea with multicoloured threadwork, drawing a house with legs in motion while smoke rises from its chimney, signalling that someone is inside this moving home. Next to this is a tiny house with wings and another designed like the top of a parachute for a person gliding through the sky, with the words ‘paratrooper’ written with thread beneath the figure. Suh conceptualises the home as a moving figure through his many ideas, from a house with wheels to one on top of a boat. His canvas is riddled with names of cities he has called home at various points in his life, such as LA, NY, Seoul and London, along with the words ‘running home’ written in red thread.
This work is also reminiscent of the Korean expression ‘Walk the house’, which this exhibition is named after. Suh remembers overhearing carpenters who constructed his childhood home in Seoul use this expression when he was a young boy. The building was known as a ‘hanok’, a home that can be easily disassembled and rebuilt in an alternate location. It also signals an ease in transporting not just the facade of the building but the emotional and symbolic aspects of a space that make it into a home. For Suh, this movement means carrying memory with you through spaces. He says, “memory amalgamates in these spaces and memories shape our perceptions of them. Yet, they’re not stagnant. They’re not foreclosed environments in my work. They’re transportable, breathable”.
Tate’s exhibition includes Suh’s recreation of this childhood home titled Rubbing/Loving: Seoul Home, made between 2013 and 2022. Suh’s labour-intensive artistic process includes covering the house with mulberry paper and tracing each detail onto the paper with graphite. He also records this process for viewers to understand, and this video accompanies this installation, helping people realise the true extent of his labour. This process of ‘rubbing graphite’ is also central to his practice and is described by the artist as a ‘loving gesture’.
Born in Seoul in 1962, the artist moved to the United States in 1991, receiving his Bachelor’s in Fine Arts at the Rhode Island School of Design. He then moved to New Haven to complete his MFA in sculpture from Yale University. Suh undertook this move to the US from South Korea not as a child but as an adult on whom his native land had left an indelible mark. Bringing his own culture, traditions, and way of life to the US, the artist experienced a hybridity in his identity that gave way to many of the works in this exhibition.
“I want to carry my home, my house, with me at all times, like a snail”, Suh says, and he illustrates this idea in all his works in this exhibition, from the large-scale installations to the smaller, detailed canvas paintings. In Haunting Home (2019), multicoloured threads tie together the body of a man running and his home that floats with him as he runs. The body and the home are symbolically and physically tied to each other, where each fraction of his being results in a part of his home, as through the memories and traditions that build his home are also the building blocks for his identity.
For Suh, ‘Home’ is more than just a physical space; it is a collection of memories and emotions that he yearns to preserve. What happens in the space is also a marker for a specific time and place in this globalised world, where the exterior architecture and conversations in the home are all tied to the cultural identity of that place at that time. Suh’s homes capture time and space, preserving memories and recording our past; however, almost simultaneously, they are an act of letting go.
“In-betweenness is a fundamental condition of our times”, wrote postcolonial scholar Homi K. Bhabha in his seminal work, The Location of Culture (1994). His text focuses on the complexities of cultural interaction in a globalised world and the plurality of human identity in such a world. Bhabha’s ideas are echoed in Do Ho Suh’s Walk the House (1 May - 19 October 2025) at Tate Modern, a retrospective that looks at three decades of the artist’s practice, documenting the personal and psychological impact of living in a globalised world.
My Homes (2010) is made from thread embedded in paper and encapsulates this idea of movement and a home in multiple countries. However, his stress is not on multiple homes but on one home in motion. He illustrates this idea with multicoloured threadwork, drawing a house with legs in motion while smoke rises from its chimney, signalling that someone is inside this moving home. Next to this is a tiny house with wings and another designed like the top of a parachute for a person gliding through the sky, with the words ‘paratrooper’ written with thread beneath the figure. Suh conceptualises the home as a moving figure through his many ideas, from a house with wheels to one on top of a boat. His canvas is riddled with names of cities he has called home at various points in his life, such as LA, NY, Seoul and London, along with the words ‘running home’ written in red thread.
This work is also reminiscent of the Korean expression ‘Walk the house’, which this exhibition is named after. Suh remembers overhearing carpenters who constructed his childhood home in Seoul use this expression when he was a young boy. The building was known as a ‘hanok’, a home that can be easily disassembled and rebuilt in an alternate location. It also signals an ease in transporting not just the facade of the building but the emotional and symbolic aspects of a space that make it into a home. For Suh, this movement means carrying memory with you through spaces. He says, “memory amalgamates in these spaces and memories shape our perceptions of them. Yet, they’re not stagnant. They’re not foreclosed environments in my work. They’re transportable, breathable”.
Tate’s exhibition includes Suh’s recreation of this childhood home titled Rubbing/Loving: Seoul Home, made between 2013 and 2022. Suh’s labour-intensive artistic process includes covering the house with mulberry paper and tracing each detail onto the paper with graphite. He also records this process for viewers to understand, and this video accompanies this installation, helping people realise the true extent of his labour. This process of ‘rubbing graphite’ is also central to his practice and is described by the artist as a ‘loving gesture’.
Born in Seoul in 1962, the artist moved to the United States in 1991, receiving his Bachelor’s in Fine Arts at the Rhode Island School of Design. He then moved to New Haven to complete his MFA in sculpture from Yale University. Suh undertook this move to the US from South Korea not as a child but as an adult on whom his native land had left an indelible mark. Bringing his own culture, traditions, and way of life to the US, the artist experienced a hybridity in his identity that gave way to many of the works in this exhibition.
“I want to carry my home, my house, with me at all times, like a snail”, Suh says, and he illustrates this idea in all his works in this exhibition, from the large-scale installations to the smaller, detailed canvas paintings. In Haunting Home (2019), multicoloured threads tie together the body of a man running and his home that floats with him as he runs. The body and the home are symbolically and physically tied to each other, where each fraction of his being results in a part of his home, as through the memories and traditions that build his home are also the building blocks for his identity.
For Suh, ‘Home’ is more than just a physical space; it is a collection of memories and emotions that he yearns to preserve. What happens in the space is also a marker for a specific time and place in this globalised world, where the exterior architecture and conversations in the home are all tied to the cultural identity of that place at that time. Suh’s homes capture time and space, preserving memories and recording our past; however, almost simultaneously, they are an act of letting go.
“In-betweenness is a fundamental condition of our times”, wrote postcolonial scholar Homi K. Bhabha in his seminal work, The Location of Culture (1994). His text focuses on the complexities of cultural interaction in a globalised world and the plurality of human identity in such a world. Bhabha’s ideas are echoed in Do Ho Suh’s Walk the House (1 May - 19 October 2025) at Tate Modern, a retrospective that looks at three decades of the artist’s practice, documenting the personal and psychological impact of living in a globalised world.
My Homes (2010) is made from thread embedded in paper and encapsulates this idea of movement and a home in multiple countries. However, his stress is not on multiple homes but on one home in motion. He illustrates this idea with multicoloured threadwork, drawing a house with legs in motion while smoke rises from its chimney, signalling that someone is inside this moving home. Next to this is a tiny house with wings and another designed like the top of a parachute for a person gliding through the sky, with the words ‘paratrooper’ written with thread beneath the figure. Suh conceptualises the home as a moving figure through his many ideas, from a house with wheels to one on top of a boat. His canvas is riddled with names of cities he has called home at various points in his life, such as LA, NY, Seoul and London, along with the words ‘running home’ written in red thread.
This work is also reminiscent of the Korean expression ‘Walk the house’, which this exhibition is named after. Suh remembers overhearing carpenters who constructed his childhood home in Seoul use this expression when he was a young boy. The building was known as a ‘hanok’, a home that can be easily disassembled and rebuilt in an alternate location. It also signals an ease in transporting not just the facade of the building but the emotional and symbolic aspects of a space that make it into a home. For Suh, this movement means carrying memory with you through spaces. He says, “memory amalgamates in these spaces and memories shape our perceptions of them. Yet, they’re not stagnant. They’re not foreclosed environments in my work. They’re transportable, breathable”.
Tate’s exhibition includes Suh’s recreation of this childhood home titled Rubbing/Loving: Seoul Home, made between 2013 and 2022. Suh’s labour-intensive artistic process includes covering the house with mulberry paper and tracing each detail onto the paper with graphite. He also records this process for viewers to understand, and this video accompanies this installation, helping people realise the true extent of his labour. This process of ‘rubbing graphite’ is also central to his practice and is described by the artist as a ‘loving gesture’.
Born in Seoul in 1962, the artist moved to the United States in 1991, receiving his Bachelor’s in Fine Arts at the Rhode Island School of Design. He then moved to New Haven to complete his MFA in sculpture from Yale University. Suh undertook this move to the US from South Korea not as a child but as an adult on whom his native land had left an indelible mark. Bringing his own culture, traditions, and way of life to the US, the artist experienced a hybridity in his identity that gave way to many of the works in this exhibition.
“I want to carry my home, my house, with me at all times, like a snail”, Suh says, and he illustrates this idea in all his works in this exhibition, from the large-scale installations to the smaller, detailed canvas paintings. In Haunting Home (2019), multicoloured threads tie together the body of a man running and his home that floats with him as he runs. The body and the home are symbolically and physically tied to each other, where each fraction of his being results in a part of his home, as through the memories and traditions that build his home are also the building blocks for his identity.
For Suh, ‘Home’ is more than just a physical space; it is a collection of memories and emotions that he yearns to preserve. What happens in the space is also a marker for a specific time and place in this globalised world, where the exterior architecture and conversations in the home are all tied to the cultural identity of that place at that time. Suh’s homes capture time and space, preserving memories and recording our past; however, almost simultaneously, they are an act of letting go.
“In-betweenness is a fundamental condition of our times”, wrote postcolonial scholar Homi K. Bhabha in his seminal work, The Location of Culture (1994). His text focuses on the complexities of cultural interaction in a globalised world and the plurality of human identity in such a world. Bhabha’s ideas are echoed in Do Ho Suh’s Walk the House (1 May - 19 October 2025) at Tate Modern, a retrospective that looks at three decades of the artist’s practice, documenting the personal and psychological impact of living in a globalised world.
My Homes (2010) is made from thread embedded in paper and encapsulates this idea of movement and a home in multiple countries. However, his stress is not on multiple homes but on one home in motion. He illustrates this idea with multicoloured threadwork, drawing a house with legs in motion while smoke rises from its chimney, signalling that someone is inside this moving home. Next to this is a tiny house with wings and another designed like the top of a parachute for a person gliding through the sky, with the words ‘paratrooper’ written with thread beneath the figure. Suh conceptualises the home as a moving figure through his many ideas, from a house with wheels to one on top of a boat. His canvas is riddled with names of cities he has called home at various points in his life, such as LA, NY, Seoul and London, along with the words ‘running home’ written in red thread.
This work is also reminiscent of the Korean expression ‘Walk the house’, which this exhibition is named after. Suh remembers overhearing carpenters who constructed his childhood home in Seoul use this expression when he was a young boy. The building was known as a ‘hanok’, a home that can be easily disassembled and rebuilt in an alternate location. It also signals an ease in transporting not just the facade of the building but the emotional and symbolic aspects of a space that make it into a home. For Suh, this movement means carrying memory with you through spaces. He says, “memory amalgamates in these spaces and memories shape our perceptions of them. Yet, they’re not stagnant. They’re not foreclosed environments in my work. They’re transportable, breathable”.
Tate’s exhibition includes Suh’s recreation of this childhood home titled Rubbing/Loving: Seoul Home, made between 2013 and 2022. Suh’s labour-intensive artistic process includes covering the house with mulberry paper and tracing each detail onto the paper with graphite. He also records this process for viewers to understand, and this video accompanies this installation, helping people realise the true extent of his labour. This process of ‘rubbing graphite’ is also central to his practice and is described by the artist as a ‘loving gesture’.
Born in Seoul in 1962, the artist moved to the United States in 1991, receiving his Bachelor’s in Fine Arts at the Rhode Island School of Design. He then moved to New Haven to complete his MFA in sculpture from Yale University. Suh undertook this move to the US from South Korea not as a child but as an adult on whom his native land had left an indelible mark. Bringing his own culture, traditions, and way of life to the US, the artist experienced a hybridity in his identity that gave way to many of the works in this exhibition.
“I want to carry my home, my house, with me at all times, like a snail”, Suh says, and he illustrates this idea in all his works in this exhibition, from the large-scale installations to the smaller, detailed canvas paintings. In Haunting Home (2019), multicoloured threads tie together the body of a man running and his home that floats with him as he runs. The body and the home are symbolically and physically tied to each other, where each fraction of his being results in a part of his home, as through the memories and traditions that build his home are also the building blocks for his identity.
For Suh, ‘Home’ is more than just a physical space; it is a collection of memories and emotions that he yearns to preserve. What happens in the space is also a marker for a specific time and place in this globalised world, where the exterior architecture and conversations in the home are all tied to the cultural identity of that place at that time. Suh’s homes capture time and space, preserving memories and recording our past; however, almost simultaneously, they are an act of letting go.
“In-betweenness is a fundamental condition of our times”, wrote postcolonial scholar Homi K. Bhabha in his seminal work, The Location of Culture (1994). His text focuses on the complexities of cultural interaction in a globalised world and the plurality of human identity in such a world. Bhabha’s ideas are echoed in Do Ho Suh’s Walk the House (1 May - 19 October 2025) at Tate Modern, a retrospective that looks at three decades of the artist’s practice, documenting the personal and psychological impact of living in a globalised world.
My Homes (2010) is made from thread embedded in paper and encapsulates this idea of movement and a home in multiple countries. However, his stress is not on multiple homes but on one home in motion. He illustrates this idea with multicoloured threadwork, drawing a house with legs in motion while smoke rises from its chimney, signalling that someone is inside this moving home. Next to this is a tiny house with wings and another designed like the top of a parachute for a person gliding through the sky, with the words ‘paratrooper’ written with thread beneath the figure. Suh conceptualises the home as a moving figure through his many ideas, from a house with wheels to one on top of a boat. His canvas is riddled with names of cities he has called home at various points in his life, such as LA, NY, Seoul and London, along with the words ‘running home’ written in red thread.
This work is also reminiscent of the Korean expression ‘Walk the house’, which this exhibition is named after. Suh remembers overhearing carpenters who constructed his childhood home in Seoul use this expression when he was a young boy. The building was known as a ‘hanok’, a home that can be easily disassembled and rebuilt in an alternate location. It also signals an ease in transporting not just the facade of the building but the emotional and symbolic aspects of a space that make it into a home. For Suh, this movement means carrying memory with you through spaces. He says, “memory amalgamates in these spaces and memories shape our perceptions of them. Yet, they’re not stagnant. They’re not foreclosed environments in my work. They’re transportable, breathable”.
Tate’s exhibition includes Suh’s recreation of this childhood home titled Rubbing/Loving: Seoul Home, made between 2013 and 2022. Suh’s labour-intensive artistic process includes covering the house with mulberry paper and tracing each detail onto the paper with graphite. He also records this process for viewers to understand, and this video accompanies this installation, helping people realise the true extent of his labour. This process of ‘rubbing graphite’ is also central to his practice and is described by the artist as a ‘loving gesture’.
Born in Seoul in 1962, the artist moved to the United States in 1991, receiving his Bachelor’s in Fine Arts at the Rhode Island School of Design. He then moved to New Haven to complete his MFA in sculpture from Yale University. Suh undertook this move to the US from South Korea not as a child but as an adult on whom his native land had left an indelible mark. Bringing his own culture, traditions, and way of life to the US, the artist experienced a hybridity in his identity that gave way to many of the works in this exhibition.
“I want to carry my home, my house, with me at all times, like a snail”, Suh says, and he illustrates this idea in all his works in this exhibition, from the large-scale installations to the smaller, detailed canvas paintings. In Haunting Home (2019), multicoloured threads tie together the body of a man running and his home that floats with him as he runs. The body and the home are symbolically and physically tied to each other, where each fraction of his being results in a part of his home, as through the memories and traditions that build his home are also the building blocks for his identity.
For Suh, ‘Home’ is more than just a physical space; it is a collection of memories and emotions that he yearns to preserve. What happens in the space is also a marker for a specific time and place in this globalised world, where the exterior architecture and conversations in the home are all tied to the cultural identity of that place at that time. Suh’s homes capture time and space, preserving memories and recording our past; however, almost simultaneously, they are an act of letting go.
“In-betweenness is a fundamental condition of our times”, wrote postcolonial scholar Homi K. Bhabha in his seminal work, The Location of Culture (1994). His text focuses on the complexities of cultural interaction in a globalised world and the plurality of human identity in such a world. Bhabha’s ideas are echoed in Do Ho Suh’s Walk the House (1 May - 19 October 2025) at Tate Modern, a retrospective that looks at three decades of the artist’s practice, documenting the personal and psychological impact of living in a globalised world.
My Homes (2010) is made from thread embedded in paper and encapsulates this idea of movement and a home in multiple countries. However, his stress is not on multiple homes but on one home in motion. He illustrates this idea with multicoloured threadwork, drawing a house with legs in motion while smoke rises from its chimney, signalling that someone is inside this moving home. Next to this is a tiny house with wings and another designed like the top of a parachute for a person gliding through the sky, with the words ‘paratrooper’ written with thread beneath the figure. Suh conceptualises the home as a moving figure through his many ideas, from a house with wheels to one on top of a boat. His canvas is riddled with names of cities he has called home at various points in his life, such as LA, NY, Seoul and London, along with the words ‘running home’ written in red thread.
This work is also reminiscent of the Korean expression ‘Walk the house’, which this exhibition is named after. Suh remembers overhearing carpenters who constructed his childhood home in Seoul use this expression when he was a young boy. The building was known as a ‘hanok’, a home that can be easily disassembled and rebuilt in an alternate location. It also signals an ease in transporting not just the facade of the building but the emotional and symbolic aspects of a space that make it into a home. For Suh, this movement means carrying memory with you through spaces. He says, “memory amalgamates in these spaces and memories shape our perceptions of them. Yet, they’re not stagnant. They’re not foreclosed environments in my work. They’re transportable, breathable”.
Tate’s exhibition includes Suh’s recreation of this childhood home titled Rubbing/Loving: Seoul Home, made between 2013 and 2022. Suh’s labour-intensive artistic process includes covering the house with mulberry paper and tracing each detail onto the paper with graphite. He also records this process for viewers to understand, and this video accompanies this installation, helping people realise the true extent of his labour. This process of ‘rubbing graphite’ is also central to his practice and is described by the artist as a ‘loving gesture’.
Born in Seoul in 1962, the artist moved to the United States in 1991, receiving his Bachelor’s in Fine Arts at the Rhode Island School of Design. He then moved to New Haven to complete his MFA in sculpture from Yale University. Suh undertook this move to the US from South Korea not as a child but as an adult on whom his native land had left an indelible mark. Bringing his own culture, traditions, and way of life to the US, the artist experienced a hybridity in his identity that gave way to many of the works in this exhibition.
“I want to carry my home, my house, with me at all times, like a snail”, Suh says, and he illustrates this idea in all his works in this exhibition, from the large-scale installations to the smaller, detailed canvas paintings. In Haunting Home (2019), multicoloured threads tie together the body of a man running and his home that floats with him as he runs. The body and the home are symbolically and physically tied to each other, where each fraction of his being results in a part of his home, as through the memories and traditions that build his home are also the building blocks for his identity.
For Suh, ‘Home’ is more than just a physical space; it is a collection of memories and emotions that he yearns to preserve. What happens in the space is also a marker for a specific time and place in this globalised world, where the exterior architecture and conversations in the home are all tied to the cultural identity of that place at that time. Suh’s homes capture time and space, preserving memories and recording our past; however, almost simultaneously, they are an act of letting go.
“In-betweenness is a fundamental condition of our times”, wrote postcolonial scholar Homi K. Bhabha in his seminal work, The Location of Culture (1994). His text focuses on the complexities of cultural interaction in a globalised world and the plurality of human identity in such a world. Bhabha’s ideas are echoed in Do Ho Suh’s Walk the House (1 May - 19 October 2025) at Tate Modern, a retrospective that looks at three decades of the artist’s practice, documenting the personal and psychological impact of living in a globalised world.
My Homes (2010) is made from thread embedded in paper and encapsulates this idea of movement and a home in multiple countries. However, his stress is not on multiple homes but on one home in motion. He illustrates this idea with multicoloured threadwork, drawing a house with legs in motion while smoke rises from its chimney, signalling that someone is inside this moving home. Next to this is a tiny house with wings and another designed like the top of a parachute for a person gliding through the sky, with the words ‘paratrooper’ written with thread beneath the figure. Suh conceptualises the home as a moving figure through his many ideas, from a house with wheels to one on top of a boat. His canvas is riddled with names of cities he has called home at various points in his life, such as LA, NY, Seoul and London, along with the words ‘running home’ written in red thread.
This work is also reminiscent of the Korean expression ‘Walk the house’, which this exhibition is named after. Suh remembers overhearing carpenters who constructed his childhood home in Seoul use this expression when he was a young boy. The building was known as a ‘hanok’, a home that can be easily disassembled and rebuilt in an alternate location. It also signals an ease in transporting not just the facade of the building but the emotional and symbolic aspects of a space that make it into a home. For Suh, this movement means carrying memory with you through spaces. He says, “memory amalgamates in these spaces and memories shape our perceptions of them. Yet, they’re not stagnant. They’re not foreclosed environments in my work. They’re transportable, breathable”.
Tate’s exhibition includes Suh’s recreation of this childhood home titled Rubbing/Loving: Seoul Home, made between 2013 and 2022. Suh’s labour-intensive artistic process includes covering the house with mulberry paper and tracing each detail onto the paper with graphite. He also records this process for viewers to understand, and this video accompanies this installation, helping people realise the true extent of his labour. This process of ‘rubbing graphite’ is also central to his practice and is described by the artist as a ‘loving gesture’.
Born in Seoul in 1962, the artist moved to the United States in 1991, receiving his Bachelor’s in Fine Arts at the Rhode Island School of Design. He then moved to New Haven to complete his MFA in sculpture from Yale University. Suh undertook this move to the US from South Korea not as a child but as an adult on whom his native land had left an indelible mark. Bringing his own culture, traditions, and way of life to the US, the artist experienced a hybridity in his identity that gave way to many of the works in this exhibition.
“I want to carry my home, my house, with me at all times, like a snail”, Suh says, and he illustrates this idea in all his works in this exhibition, from the large-scale installations to the smaller, detailed canvas paintings. In Haunting Home (2019), multicoloured threads tie together the body of a man running and his home that floats with him as he runs. The body and the home are symbolically and physically tied to each other, where each fraction of his being results in a part of his home, as through the memories and traditions that build his home are also the building blocks for his identity.
For Suh, ‘Home’ is more than just a physical space; it is a collection of memories and emotions that he yearns to preserve. What happens in the space is also a marker for a specific time and place in this globalised world, where the exterior architecture and conversations in the home are all tied to the cultural identity of that place at that time. Suh’s homes capture time and space, preserving memories and recording our past; however, almost simultaneously, they are an act of letting go.
“In-betweenness is a fundamental condition of our times”, wrote postcolonial scholar Homi K. Bhabha in his seminal work, The Location of Culture (1994). His text focuses on the complexities of cultural interaction in a globalised world and the plurality of human identity in such a world. Bhabha’s ideas are echoed in Do Ho Suh’s Walk the House (1 May - 19 October 2025) at Tate Modern, a retrospective that looks at three decades of the artist’s practice, documenting the personal and psychological impact of living in a globalised world.
My Homes (2010) is made from thread embedded in paper and encapsulates this idea of movement and a home in multiple countries. However, his stress is not on multiple homes but on one home in motion. He illustrates this idea with multicoloured threadwork, drawing a house with legs in motion while smoke rises from its chimney, signalling that someone is inside this moving home. Next to this is a tiny house with wings and another designed like the top of a parachute for a person gliding through the sky, with the words ‘paratrooper’ written with thread beneath the figure. Suh conceptualises the home as a moving figure through his many ideas, from a house with wheels to one on top of a boat. His canvas is riddled with names of cities he has called home at various points in his life, such as LA, NY, Seoul and London, along with the words ‘running home’ written in red thread.
This work is also reminiscent of the Korean expression ‘Walk the house’, which this exhibition is named after. Suh remembers overhearing carpenters who constructed his childhood home in Seoul use this expression when he was a young boy. The building was known as a ‘hanok’, a home that can be easily disassembled and rebuilt in an alternate location. It also signals an ease in transporting not just the facade of the building but the emotional and symbolic aspects of a space that make it into a home. For Suh, this movement means carrying memory with you through spaces. He says, “memory amalgamates in these spaces and memories shape our perceptions of them. Yet, they’re not stagnant. They’re not foreclosed environments in my work. They’re transportable, breathable”.
Tate’s exhibition includes Suh’s recreation of this childhood home titled Rubbing/Loving: Seoul Home, made between 2013 and 2022. Suh’s labour-intensive artistic process includes covering the house with mulberry paper and tracing each detail onto the paper with graphite. He also records this process for viewers to understand, and this video accompanies this installation, helping people realise the true extent of his labour. This process of ‘rubbing graphite’ is also central to his practice and is described by the artist as a ‘loving gesture’.
Born in Seoul in 1962, the artist moved to the United States in 1991, receiving his Bachelor’s in Fine Arts at the Rhode Island School of Design. He then moved to New Haven to complete his MFA in sculpture from Yale University. Suh undertook this move to the US from South Korea not as a child but as an adult on whom his native land had left an indelible mark. Bringing his own culture, traditions, and way of life to the US, the artist experienced a hybridity in his identity that gave way to many of the works in this exhibition.
“I want to carry my home, my house, with me at all times, like a snail”, Suh says, and he illustrates this idea in all his works in this exhibition, from the large-scale installations to the smaller, detailed canvas paintings. In Haunting Home (2019), multicoloured threads tie together the body of a man running and his home that floats with him as he runs. The body and the home are symbolically and physically tied to each other, where each fraction of his being results in a part of his home, as through the memories and traditions that build his home are also the building blocks for his identity.
For Suh, ‘Home’ is more than just a physical space; it is a collection of memories and emotions that he yearns to preserve. What happens in the space is also a marker for a specific time and place in this globalised world, where the exterior architecture and conversations in the home are all tied to the cultural identity of that place at that time. Suh’s homes capture time and space, preserving memories and recording our past; however, almost simultaneously, they are an act of letting go.
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