Passing by this Liverpool alleyway and noting the bizarre sight of a small structure wedged between two buildings, you might wonder whether it was dropped from the sky, or perhaps pushed off the edge of one of the rooftops above. Spray-painted on the wall of the building beside it reads ‘There are 3951 people for every km2 in this city. Do you like your neighbors?”
‘Bridging Home’ is an outdoor installation by Korean artist Do Ho Suh, originally commissioned for the Liverpool Biennial in 2010 and currently part of Roundtable: 9th Gwangui Biennale at the Tate Modern. Made of a steel structural frame and finished with marine plywood, ‘Bridging Home’ was installed at an angle to highlight the sense of tension between the traditional Korean architecture of the miniature house and the more British architecture of its neighbors.
Do Ho Suh has dedicated his career to analyzing the concept of home, particularly as experienced by immigrants in a new country with an unfamiliar culture. ‘Bridging Home’ touches upon the tension that can arise between neighbors of different cultures in big cities.
One notable previous work is ‘Home Within Home’, an indoor installation of ghostly architectural sculptures made of colored silk that hang like specters of another time and place within a modern, Western gallery setting. “It’s my personal journey from Korea to the U.S., and the story of the house that came along with me, or brought me here,” says the artist.
