WEBVTT 00:00:04.660 --> 00:00:09.704 Do Ho Suh "Rubbing / Loving" 00:00:20.566 --> 00:00:24.799 I have a mutual friend who was giving up this flat. 00:00:24.830 --> 00:00:26.010 And so I took it. 00:00:32.506 --> 00:00:36.218 I never lived anywhere else in New York City-- 00:00:36.479 --> 00:00:39.619 this is the first and the last place. 00:00:46.303 --> 00:00:49.156 I had an interview with my landlord. 00:00:52.390 --> 00:00:54.258 They heard that I'm an artist. 00:00:54.852 --> 00:00:55.923 They were really concerned 00:00:56.591 --> 00:00:59.285 They were not sure whether I could actually pay the rent. 00:01:00.454 --> 00:01:03.405 But they let me live here. 00:01:04.400 --> 00:01:10.373 It was my living space and studio for eighteen years. 00:01:12.132 --> 00:01:15.271 My artistic career started from here. 00:01:19.606 --> 00:01:23.465 The whole process is to remember the space 00:01:23.650 --> 00:01:27.410 and also somehow memorialize the space. 00:01:28.666 --> 00:01:32.145 Whoever is going to buy this place is going to renovate the space 00:01:32.351 --> 00:01:34.132 and everything is going to go. 00:01:34.632 --> 00:01:39.302 It is quite a meaningful place for the family-- 00:01:39.472 --> 00:01:41.211 and also for me. 00:01:42.545 --> 00:01:46.466 I've been moving around since I left Korea 00:01:46.991 --> 00:01:48.752 I'm living in London now. 00:01:50.342 --> 00:01:52.832 It's a constant recalibration. 00:01:52.963 --> 00:01:58.223 I try to understand my life as a movement through different spaces. 00:01:59.301 --> 00:02:00.561 --You can do this, as well 00:02:01.355 --> 00:02:02.486 --Yeah, don't worry. 00:02:03.465 --> 00:02:04.550 --I know... 00:02:05.229 --> 00:02:06.855 --We just fixed it! 00:02:07.842 --> 00:02:08.299 --Yeah 00:02:13.776 --> 00:02:19.689 After this project is done and peeled away from the space, 00:02:19.919 --> 00:02:23.639 I'll probably pack it and show it somewhere in the future. 00:02:25.038 --> 00:02:29.995 It's a bit difficult to take it off from the objects, 00:02:30.279 --> 00:02:35.151 but once you do that carefully, it still contains the shape of the object. 00:02:37.742 --> 00:02:40.649 I was constantly seeking some other means to 00:02:40.829 --> 00:02:43.593 capture the information of the space 00:02:43.993 --> 00:02:46.423 that was lacking from my fabric version. 00:02:47.153 --> 00:02:49.032 When I discovered it by rubbing, 00:02:49.032 --> 00:02:52.101 it just brought the memories associated with those details. 00:02:52.963 --> 00:02:55.262 And there's hundreds of thousands of it. 00:02:58.564 --> 00:03:02.262 When I did fabric versions of this space, 00:03:02.722 --> 00:03:07.981 Arthur, the landlord, was supporting my project emotionally. 00:03:08.187 --> 00:03:10.140 You know, I don't know how much he understood 00:03:10.140 --> 00:03:13.240 what I was doing back then, 00:03:13.240 --> 00:03:17.354 but he always let me do crazy things in this space. 00:03:23.930 --> 00:03:27.440 If I write "rubbing" in Korean, 00:03:27.440 --> 00:03:29.510 people could read it as "loving" 00:03:29.510 --> 00:03:33.980 because there's no distinction between "r" and "l" in Korean alphabet. 00:03:36.871 --> 00:03:40.641 I think the gesture of rubbing is a very loving gesture. 00:03:41.621 --> 00:03:46.701 So, I made the connection between rubbing and loving, 00:03:46.988 --> 00:03:49.537 and that's how the title came about. 00:03:55.969 --> 00:03:59.060 My energy has been accumulated, 00:03:59.069 --> 00:04:02.684 and in way, I think, my rubbing shows that 00:04:04.788 --> 00:04:07.959 The darker area--doorknobs and locks-- 00:04:07.959 --> 00:04:08.959 that's the objects 00:04:08.959 --> 00:04:11.480 that you touch every time 00:04:11.480 --> 00:04:14.500 And just imagine how many times that I actually 00:04:14.500 --> 00:04:18.420 flip that light switch when I was living in here for eighteen years. 00:04:18.430 --> 00:04:21.750 I'm trying to show the layers of time. 00:04:25.460 --> 00:04:28.086 From the distance, it looks like a drawing 00:04:29.541 --> 00:04:35.419 As you get closer, it becomes very sculptural and three-dimensional. 00:04:36.638 --> 00:04:42.704 There's a point where it sort of changes from two-dimensional to three-dimensional. 00:04:46.263 --> 00:04:49.403 Arthur, he was suffering with Alzheimer's disease. 00:04:50.715 --> 00:04:54.100 A few months before he passed away, 00:04:54.110 --> 00:04:56.247 I made a special effort to see him. 00:04:56.825 --> 00:04:59.358 He warned me that he may not remember me. 00:05:00.186 --> 00:05:02.159 I was prepared for that, 00:05:02.845 --> 00:05:05.064 but we ended up talking two hours. 00:05:06.509 --> 00:05:08.439 So at the end of the day, 00:05:08.439 --> 00:05:12.227 I asked him to come down to see what we were doing. 00:05:12.937 --> 00:05:15.640 I showed him around and then he said, 00:05:15.650 --> 00:05:17.820 "Oh, there's nothing much to see!" 00:05:17.820 --> 00:05:20.437 You know, which is understandable. 00:05:21.187 --> 00:05:23.240 But then he sat down and told me, 00:05:23.250 --> 00:05:27.870 "You're welcome to do whatever you want to do in this house." 00:05:27.870 --> 00:05:31.809 And I was almost going to burst into tears 00:05:31.809 --> 00:05:37.710 because that's exactly what he told me you know, thirteen years ago, 00:05:37.710 --> 00:05:41.800 when I was measuring the hallway at 4 o'clock in the morning 00:05:41.800 --> 00:05:44.381 because I didn't want to disturb other people. 00:05:46.545 --> 00:05:48.660 He came down so quietly 00:05:49.230 --> 00:05:51.419 and then saw me measuring the corner 00:05:51.419 --> 00:05:53.299 and he said, "What are you doing?" 00:05:53.300 --> 00:05:54.759 And I tried to explain 00:05:54.759 --> 00:05:57.169 you know, about the project, 00:05:57.169 --> 00:05:59.379 but he said the exact same thing: 00:06:02.780 --> 00:06:04.703 "Do whatever you want to do."