Do Ho Suh: In Process

September 06 - December 21,2024

From the Moody Center for the Arts: "The Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University will inaugurate its Fall 2024 season with an innovative presentation of works by the internationally renowned artist Do Ho Suh, opening September 6, 2024. The first exhibition of its kind by Do Ho Suh, In Process forgoes the formalities of a traditional gallery display in favor of creating a studio-like space highlighting the artist's research and collaborative projects. By privileging the dynamics of open experimentation over the finality of the end result, In Process invites visitors to experience the methodologies by which Do Ho Suh iterates on ideas, engages experts from diverse fields, and expresses complex themes through the physical manifestations of his artistic practice. “As an institution dedicated to the intersection of art and ideas, the Moody is honored to present this unique perspective on Do Ho Suh’s inspiring practice. We invite visitors to experience the origin of the artist’s work and the process by which he transforms materials into sculptural objects,” said the Suzanne Deal Both Executive Director Alison Weaver. According to Do Ho Suh this exhibition marks a milestone in his career, “I am a hugely process-driven artist. This exhibition is something I’ve wanted to do for a very long time," said Suh. "Much of the work I exhibit I consider to be part of larger processes – whether mental or physical – and for me, it is about that process as much as it is about the outcome. It takes an institution like the Moody to present an exhibition as unusual as this one – it’s a gift as an artist." In addition to a presentation of the finished works Inverted Monument (2022) and Blueprint (2010), the exhibition will include a display of iterative, collaborative work including The Bridge Project as well as a selection of Do Ho Suh's rubbings, sculptures, and maquettes taken directly from his studio. Visitors will also be invited to contribute to Suh's Artland, a sculptural landscape comprised of islands inhabited by characters that guests can create from malleable clay. About the Exhibition Since 2010 Do Ho Suh has worked closely with engineers, architects, and designers to conceptualize a bridge connecting his homes in Seoul, London and New York City. For the past year, Suh collaborated with a team of Rice University engineering students to further his research for The Bridge Project, inviting them to conceive of a viable structure addressing the challenges of climate, the oceanic environment, structural integrity, and the elements needed to support human life. The resulting models by students will be on display together with drawings and videos by the artist in the Moody’s Central Gallery. The Moody’s Brown Foundation Gallery will include a combination of rubbings, sculptures, maquettes, and finished artworks highlighting the conceptual and tactical processes that comprise Do Ho Suh’s practice. For example, life-size rubbings made as part of a habitual practice by the artist, as well as a step in the creation of the large-scale sculpture Portal (2015), a work concurrently on view at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, will be displayed in crates specifically designed for transport from the traditional Korean gate’s original location in Seoul to the U.S.-based fabricator who, through a ten-year collaboration with the artist, devised an innovative technique to recreate the exact structure in acrylic resin. Finished works in the gallery include Inverted Monument (2022), a sculpture made of extruded thermoplastic polyester, developed as part of a long-term research project with a robotics team at the University of the West of England’s Centre for Print Research. Addressing themes of commemoration and history in dialogue with current national conversations around civic sculpture, Inverted Monument invites visitors to question both historic notions of authority and the agency of the artist’s hand, while considering the roles of collaboration and technology in the creative process. Following presentations in Seoul, London, Brooklyn, and now in Houston, Artland is a fantastical ecosystem dreamed up in 2016 by artist Do Ho Suh and his two young daughters. Comprised of a series of fantastical islands inhabited by colorful creatures and wonderous plants, creative visitors of all ages will be invited to contribute their own elements to the work and to imagine alternative universes powered by the human imagination. Do Ho Suh: In Process is curated by Executive Director Alison Weaver. This exhibition is made possible by the Moody Center for the Arts Founders Circle and the Libbie Rice Shearn Moody Fund for the Arts. Major support is provided by the Elizabeth Lee Moody Excellence Fund for the Arts and the Thomas D. and Pamela Riley Smith Endowment for the Moody Center for the Arts. Additional support is provided by the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance. About the Artist Having lived primarily between the cities of Seoul, New York and London, Do Ho Suh’s (b. 1962, Seoul, South Korea) work explores concepts of home, both physically and psychologically, as well as issues of displacement, migration, memory, and the passage of time. Through sculpture, works on paper, and video, the artist invites us to consider topics ranging from personal identity to the socio-political implications of our actions in a complex, ever-changing world. Suh received a B.F.A. in painting from Rhode Island School of Design in 1994 and an M.F.A. in sculpture from Yale University in 1997. Solo exhibitions of his work have recently been organized at Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney, Australia (2022); Buk-Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea (2021); Bloomberg SPACE, London, United Kingdom (2021); Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA (2019); Victoria & Albert Museum, London, United Kingdom (2019); Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar, the Netherlands (2018); ARoS, Aarhus, Denmark (2018); The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY (2018); among many others. Suh’s work is in numerous international public and private collections, including at the Guggenheim Museum, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Tate, Whitney Museum of American Art, Hammer Museum, and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston."

Reception: September 06, 2024 | 6-8 pm

Film: December 07, 2024 | 6-8 pm
Home (2015)

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