'New York City Apartment Corridor/Ground Floor plus Staircase' - Do Ho Suh, 2000, Shown at Bristol Museum (2015)

When considering initial research for Maps and Journeys, the concept of exploring the space that we are actively present in fascinated me and instantly reminded me of this exhibit by Korean artist Do Ho Suh  I went to see during a spontaneous visit to Bristol Museum in the summer holidays.

To be honest I found this exhibition by complete luck. In one of the back rooms of the museum on the third floor I peeked in and  saw this marvellous structure suspended by thin little wires hung from the ceiling. Intrigued, I sheepishly shuffled into the room, and after a few circuits of the structure reeling in quiet admiration the clerk asked me if I would like to actually walk through this incredible structure. I shed my  bag and my hoodie and then, as I entered the space I realised that the structure was actually made entirely out of small bits of thread intricately woven together and supported by thin aluminium poles.

I love this work because it actively immerses the audience into a physical space that has almost become a shadow, or a thinly veiled representation of a space that exists thousands of miles away.

Suh sees space as infinitely moveable, saying that he experiences space through, and as the movement of displacement. "Space for me become intrinsically transportable and translatable" he says. It's like he is trying to trap fleeting memories by clinging to the ordinary stuff of life. I suppose that the fragility of the piece encapsulates the fleeting nature of memory, and also made me so incredibly aware of the space around me, and I was suddenly concious of how I could easily trip and destroy all this beautiful art by tripping up or something.


Remarkably, according the the program the entire installation folds up into just two suitcases (which is pretty neat) too.

Rachel Whiteread

Untitled (Stairs) - Rachel Whiteread, 2001

Whilst researching further into Suh's works, I came across an English sculptor, draughtsman and printmaker named Rachel Whiteread. She typically employs traditional casting methods and uses materials commonly used in the preparation of sculptures rather than the finished object such as resin, plaster or rubber. Using these materials, she makes sculptures of the spaces in, under and on every day objects.