Do Ho Suh is “bridging home” in a new, large-scale outdoor installation in the heart of London

Bridging Home is an ambitious installation on the footbridge over Wormwood Street, one of the busies roads in the City of London. Curated by Fatoş Üstek and co-commissioned by Art Night and Sculpture in the City, the installation is the prolific artist’s first large-scale outdoor work of art. Revealed in the last few days, the piece is a to-scale replica of a traditional Hanok-style, Korean house along with an authentic bamboo garden which appears to have “fallen” onto the bridge at an angle. The piece hints at a modern-day urbanism of Frank L. Baum’s, The Wizard of Oz where Dorothy’s house is absurdly swept up into a tornado and crashes into the surreal landscape of Oz.

The installation is a response into the migrant history of East London, using the artists’ own experiences as inspiration. Do Ho Suh recreates specific domestic spaces that he has resided in, exploring the mysteries of memory, notions of home, as well as cross-cultural displacement and integration. The Korean artist states, “it is hugely rewarding to create a public work in London, my adopted home. For me, a building is more than just space. It is not only physical but also metaphorical and psychological. In my work I want to draw out these intangible qualities of energy, history, life and memory”.

Bridging Home is part of a series that Do Ho Suh has been working on for the past ten years. The piece comments on the controversial topic of migration, demonstrated by the displaced Korean house amongst the modernist skyscrapers of London. The artist further states, “while Bridging Home comes from personal experience, I hope it is something a lot of people can relate to”.