1 00:00:04,660 --> 00:00:09,720 [Do Ho Suh: "Rubbing / Loving"] 2 00:00:20,540 --> 00:00:24,740 I have a mutual friend who was giving up this flat. 3 00:00:24,750 --> 00:00:26,630 And so I took it. 4 00:00:32,600 --> 00:00:36,400 I never lived anywhere else in New York City-- 5 00:00:36,400 --> 00:00:39,620 this is the first and the last place. 6 00:00:46,340 --> 00:00:49,180 I had an interview with my landlord. 7 00:00:52,360 --> 00:00:54,260 They heard that I'm an artist. 8 00:00:54,720 --> 00:00:55,980 They were really concerned. 9 00:00:56,560 --> 00:00:59,320 They were not sure whether I could actually pay the rent. 10 00:01:00,440 --> 00:01:03,420 But they let me live here. 11 00:01:04,260 --> 00:01:10,940 It was my living space and studio for eighteen years. 12 00:01:12,060 --> 00:01:15,400 My artistic career started from here. 13 00:01:19,580 --> 00:01:23,560 The whole process is to remember the space, 14 00:01:23,570 --> 00:01:27,430 and also somehow memorialize the space. 15 00:01:28,640 --> 00:01:32,240 Whoever is going to buy this place is going to renovate the space 16 00:01:32,240 --> 00:01:34,210 and everything is going to go. 17 00:01:34,600 --> 00:01:39,400 It is quite a meaningful place for the family-- 18 00:01:39,410 --> 00:01:41,250 and also for me. 19 00:01:42,550 --> 00:01:46,740 I've been moving around since I left Korea. 20 00:01:46,740 --> 00:01:48,560 I'm living in London now. 21 00:01:50,220 --> 00:01:52,900 It's a constant recalibration. 22 00:01:52,910 --> 00:01:58,450 I try to understand my life as a movement through different spaces. 23 00:01:59,280 --> 00:02:00,540 --You can do this, as well. 24 00:02:01,360 --> 00:02:02,500 --Yeah, don't worry. 25 00:02:03,360 --> 00:02:04,620 --I know... 26 00:02:05,220 --> 00:02:06,980 --[WOMAN] We just fixed it! 27 00:02:06,980 --> 00:02:07,860 [ALL LAUGH] 28 00:02:07,860 --> 00:02:08,360 --[SUH] Yeah. 29 00:02:13,760 --> 00:02:19,860 After this project is done and peeled away from the space, 30 00:02:19,860 --> 00:02:24,000 I'll probably pack it and show it somewhere in the future. 31 00:02:25,040 --> 00:02:30,040 It's a bit difficult to take it off from the objects, 32 00:02:30,040 --> 00:02:35,500 but once you do that carefully, it still contains the shape of the object. 33 00:02:37,720 --> 00:02:40,750 I was constantly seeking some other means to 34 00:02:40,750 --> 00:02:43,560 capture the information of the space 35 00:02:43,560 --> 00:02:46,780 that was lacking from my fabric version. 36 00:02:47,030 --> 00:02:48,710 When I discovered it by rubbing, 37 00:02:48,710 --> 00:02:52,250 it just brought the memories associated with those details. 38 00:02:52,860 --> 00:02:55,280 And there's hundreds of thousands of it. 39 00:02:58,560 --> 00:03:03,220 When I did fabric versions of this space, 40 00:03:03,230 --> 00:03:07,930 Arthur, the landlord, was supporting my project emotionally. 41 00:03:08,340 --> 00:03:13,240 You know, I don't know how much he understood what I was doing back then, 42 00:03:13,240 --> 00:03:17,480 but he always let me do crazy things in this space. 43 00:03:23,970 --> 00:03:27,440 If I write "rubbing" in Korean, 44 00:03:27,440 --> 00:03:29,510 people could read it as "loving" 45 00:03:29,510 --> 00:03:34,010 because there's no distinction between "r" and "l" in Korean alphabet. 46 00:03:36,860 --> 00:03:40,980 I think the gesture of rubbing is a very loving gesture. 47 00:03:41,720 --> 00:03:47,140 So, I made the connection between rubbing and loving, 48 00:03:47,140 --> 00:03:49,540 and that's how the title came about. 49 00:03:55,940 --> 00:03:59,060 My energy has been accumulated, 50 00:03:59,069 --> 00:04:02,829 and in way, I think, my rubbing shows that. 51 00:04:04,820 --> 00:04:07,959 The darker area--doorknobs and locks-- 52 00:04:07,959 --> 00:04:11,479 that's the objects that you touch every time. 53 00:04:11,480 --> 00:04:14,500 And just imagine how many times that I actually 54 00:04:14,500 --> 00:04:18,420 flip that light switch when I was living in here for eighteen years. 55 00:04:18,430 --> 00:04:22,090 I'm trying to show the layers of time. 56 00:04:25,500 --> 00:04:28,760 From the distance, it looks like a drawing. 57 00:04:29,600 --> 00:04:35,419 As you get closer, it becomes very sculptural and three-dimensional. 58 00:04:36,580 --> 00:04:43,000 There's a point where it sort of changes from two-dimensional to three-dimensional. 59 00:04:46,300 --> 00:04:49,840 Arthur, he was suffering with Alzheimer's disease. 60 00:04:50,720 --> 00:04:54,100 A few months before he passed away, 61 00:04:54,110 --> 00:04:56,300 I made a special effort to see him. 62 00:04:56,780 --> 00:04:59,480 He warned me that he may not remember me. 63 00:05:00,240 --> 00:05:02,540 I was prepared for that, 64 00:05:02,880 --> 00:05:05,480 but we ended up talking two hours. 65 00:05:06,559 --> 00:05:08,439 So at the end of the day, 66 00:05:08,439 --> 00:05:12,419 I asked him to come down to see what we were doing. 67 00:05:13,080 --> 00:05:15,640 I showed him around and then he said, 68 00:05:15,650 --> 00:05:17,820 "Oh, there's nothing much to see!" 69 00:05:17,820 --> 00:05:20,600 You know, which is understandable. 70 00:05:21,160 --> 00:05:23,240 But then he sat down and told me, 71 00:05:23,250 --> 00:05:27,870 "You're welcome to do whatever you want to do in this house." 72 00:05:27,870 --> 00:05:31,809 And I was almost going to burst into tears 73 00:05:31,809 --> 00:05:37,710 because that's exactly what he told me you know, thirteen years ago, 74 00:05:37,710 --> 00:05:41,800 when I was measuring the hallway at 4 o'clock in the morning 75 00:05:41,800 --> 00:05:44,720 because I didn't want to disturb other people. 76 00:05:46,490 --> 00:05:48,890 He came down so quietly 77 00:05:49,220 --> 00:05:51,419 and then saw me measuring the corner 78 00:05:51,419 --> 00:05:53,299 and he said, "What are you doing?" 79 00:05:53,300 --> 00:05:54,759 And I tried to explain [LAUGHS] 80 00:05:54,759 --> 00:05:57,169 you know, about the project, 81 00:05:57,169 --> 00:05:59,529 but he said the exact same thing: 82 00:06:02,800 --> 00:06:04,940 "Do whatever you want to do."