Do Ho Suh Invites You to Journey Back to All Your Past Homes

One of the things I love most about Do Ho Suh’s exhibit at Tate Modern is how universally relatable it feels. Yes, the work is stunningly beautiful, a feast for the eyes as his works usually are. But it’s also an experience I can wholeheartedly recommend to even my non-artsy friends and family, knowing they’ll genuinely enjoy the journey.

Do Ho Suh’s exhibition, Walk the House, at the Tate Modern, is a deeply moving exploration of identity via the spaces we’ve called home. Perhaps the most widely known contemporary Korean artist of our time, Do Ho Suh immerses us in ghostly replicas of his past homes and invites the world to reflect on their own personal memories.

 

Stepping into Tate Modern’s spacious galleries, you encounter translucent, ethereal sculptures meticulously crafted from fabric and paper. These life-sized reconstructions of houses and everyday objects, from doorframes and corridors to light switches and sockets, float gracefully, almost ghost-like. Each delicate piece captures the essence of a place that the artist has lived in, from his childhood hanok home in Seoul to his apartment in Providence to his downtown NYC apartment and beyond.

 

Suh’s unique method—using translucent fabric to recreate buildings and common household items—makes the familiar seem extraordinary and dreamlike. It’s this ghostly quality that draws visitors into deep contemplation about their own lives, prompting reflection on personal spaces that have shaped their own identities and memories.

“’Walk the house’ is a Korean expression Suh heard as a young boy from the carpenters who constructed his childhood home in Seoul. The building was a traditional Korean house known as a hanok. These buildings could be disassembled and reassembled in a new location – a process of literally walking the house. For Suh, the phrase describes how we carry multiple places with us across space and time.” – Tate Modern

 

Born in 1962 in Seoul to a painter father, Suh studied Korean painting at Seoul National University before transitioning to sculpture and installation at Rhode Island School of Design and Yale (MFA 1997). He lived in New York for over a decade before settling in London in 2010. His art embodies the idea that home is something portable, something we carry within ourselves wherever we go. In this exhibit, you walk through his memories, feeling both the intimacy and impermanence of spaces that once anchored his life.

Located at London’s iconic Tate Modern, a former power station transformed into a contemporary art landmark, the exhibition resonates powerfully within the museum’s monumental halls. This setting amplifies the delicate beauty and emotional depth of Suh’s works, creating an unforgettable, somewhat profound, experience for those who visit.

Beyond the Tate Modern, Suh’s work is in the permanent collections of many prestigious institutions, including MoMA, the Guggenheim, and the Walker Art Center. If you’ve ever been to Incheon International Airport, you can see an installation of his work hanging from the ceiling as you enter Terminal 1. 

 

 

Video introduction to Do Ho Suh’s Walk the House:

 

Walk the House by Do Ho Suh

Tate Modern, Bankside, London SE1 9TG (Enter via either the Turbine Hall or Blavatnik Building) 

Now through October 19,  2025