Staircase-V

Do Ho Suh’s installations faithfully mirror existing spaces but deny them the solid materiality of “the real.” They are skins or shadows, mirror images, which give rise to ideal representations in that they are between (or within) here-and-now and elsewhere-and-there, spaces of displacement, of uncertainty. They speak eloquently of the hesitation of in-betweeness, in which presence is understood as being enacted and performed through the processes of experiencing, but also as an act of memory and “reconstruction.”

Staircase-V is a full-scale replica of the staircase in the artist’s apartment in New York. Rendered in diaphanous red polyester, the fabric also considers small details such as sockets, light switches, electric lines and doorknobs. Yet, however faithful the re-presentation of this unspectacular staircase, the materials still point to a movement towards displacement: we see the staircase, know it’s a staircase, but cannot in anyway use it or see where it leads. The slight sagging of the textile components, for example, is an ironic and pleasurable detail that reveals the morphological weakness inherent in the fabric’s materiality. Its brilliant red color complements and reinforces the work’s artificiality, but also its visual allure and perceptual complexities. Here it becomes more evident that the artist’s interest is not the reproduction of memories, or the handcrafted ornamentation of textile surfaces, but rather in the production of space and the confusion of expectations.