WEBVTT 00:00:04.660 --> 00:00:09.720 [Do Ho Suh: "Rubbing / Loving"] 00:00:20.540 --> 00:00:24.740 I have a mutual friend who was giving up this flat. 00:00:24.750 --> 00:00:26.630 And so I took it. 00:00:32.600 --> 00:00:36.400 I never lived anywhere else in New York City-- 00:00:36.400 --> 00:00:39.620 this is the first and the last place. 00:00:46.340 --> 00:00:49.180 I had an interview with my landlord. 00:00:52.360 --> 00:00:54.260 They heard that I'm an artist. 00:00:54.720 --> 00:00:55.980 They were really concerned. 00:00:56.560 --> 00:00:59.320 They were not sure whether I could actually pay the rent. 00:01:00.440 --> 00:01:03.420 But they let me live here. 00:01:04.260 --> 00:01:10.940 It was my living space and studio for eighteen years. 00:01:12.060 --> 00:01:15.400 My artistic career started from here. 00:01:19.580 --> 00:01:23.560 The whole process is to remember the space, 00:01:23.570 --> 00:01:27.430 and also somehow memorialize the space. 00:01:28.640 --> 00:01:32.240 Whoever is going to buy this place is going to renovate the space 00:01:32.240 --> 00:01:34.210 and everything is going to go. 00:01:34.600 --> 00:01:39.400 It is quite a meaningful place for the family-- 00:01:39.410 --> 00:01:41.250 and also for me. 00:01:42.550 --> 00:01:46.740 I've been moving around since I left Korea. 00:01:46.740 --> 00:01:48.560 I'm living in London now. 00:01:50.220 --> 00:01:52.900 It's a constant recalibration. 00:01:52.910 --> 00:01:58.450 I try to understand my life as a movement through different spaces. 00:01:59.280 --> 00:02:00.540 --You can do this, as well. 00:02:01.360 --> 00:02:02.500 --Yeah, don't worry. 00:02:03.360 --> 00:02:04.620 --I know... 00:02:05.220 --> 00:02:06.980 --[WOMAN] We just fixed it! 00:02:06.980 --> 00:02:07.860 [ALL LAUGH] 00:02:07.860 --> 00:02:08.360 --[SUH] Yeah. 00:02:13.760 --> 00:02:19.860 After this project is done and peeled away from the space, 00:02:19.860 --> 00:02:24.000 I'll probably pack it and show it somewhere in the future. 00:02:25.040 --> 00:02:30.040 It's a bit difficult to take it off from the objects, 00:02:30.040 --> 00:02:35.500 but once you do that carefully, it still contains the shape of the object. 00:02:37.720 --> 00:02:40.750 I was constantly seeking some other means to 00:02:40.750 --> 00:02:43.560 capture the information of the space 00:02:43.560 --> 00:02:46.780 that was lacking from my fabric version. 00:02:47.030 --> 00:02:48.710 When I discovered it by rubbing, 00:02:48.710 --> 00:02:52.250 it just brought the memories associated with those details. 00:02:52.860 --> 00:02:55.280 And there's hundreds of thousands of it. 00:02:58.560 --> 00:03:03.220 When I did fabric versions of this space, 00:03:03.230 --> 00:03:07.930 Arthur, the landlord, was supporting my project emotionally. 00:03:08.340 --> 00:03:13.240 You know, I don't know how much he understood what I was doing back then, 00:03:13.240 --> 00:03:17.480 but he always let me do crazy things in this space. 00:03:23.970 --> 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 --> 00:03:34.010 because there's no distinction between "r" and "l" in Korean alphabet. 00:03:36.860 --> 00:03:40.980 I think the gesture of rubbing is a very loving gesture. 00:03:41.720 --> 00:03:47.140 So, I made the connection between rubbing and loving, 00:03:47.140 --> 00:03:49.540 and that's how the title came about. 00:03:55.940 --> 00:03:59.060 My energy has been accumulated, 00:03:59.069 --> 00:04:02.829 and in way, I think, my rubbing shows that. 00:04:04.820 --> 00:04:07.959 The darker area--doorknobs and locks-- 00:04:07.959 --> 00:04:11.479 that's the objects 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 --> 00:04:22.090 I'm trying to show the layers of time. 00:04:25.500 --> 00:04:28.760 From the distance, it looks like a drawing. 00:04:29.600 --> 00:04:35.419 As you get closer, it becomes very sculptural and three-dimensional. 00:04:36.580 --> 00:04:43.000 There's a point where it sort of changes from two-dimensional to three-dimensional. 00:04:46.300 --> 00:04:49.840 Arthur, he was suffering with Alzheimer's disease. 00:04:50.720 --> 00:04:54.100 A few months before he passed away, 00:04:54.110 --> 00:04:56.300 I made a special effort to see him. 00:04:56.780 --> 00:04:59.480 He warned me that he may not remember me. 00:05:00.240 --> 00:05:02.540 I was prepared for that, 00:05:02.880 --> 00:05:05.480 but we ended up talking two hours. 00:05:06.559 --> 00:05:08.439 So at the end of the day, 00:05:08.439 --> 00:05:12.419 I asked him to come down to see what we were doing. 00:05:13.080 --> 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 --> 00:05:20.600 You know, which is understandable. 00:05:21.160 --> 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 --> 00:05:44.720 because I didn't want to disturb other people. 00:05:46.490 --> 00:05:48.890 He came down so quietly 00:05:49.220 --> 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 [LAUGHS] 00:05:54.759 --> 00:05:57.169 you know, about the project, 00:05:57.169 --> 00:05:59.529 but he said the exact same thing: 00:06:02.800 --> 00:06:04.940 "Do whatever you want to do."