Do Ho Suh | North Wall

North Wall, 2005 by renowned South Korean artist Do Ho Suh (born 1962) is an eight-metre large-scale fabric sculpture that appears to float in space, suspended from the ceiling in the heart of the Gallery’s building. The work is one of Suh’s most significant early pieces and arrives at a timely moment, coinciding with the artist’s major survey currently on view at Tate Modern in London.

A highly personal work about the meaning of home, North Wall replicates the wall of the artist’s father’s studio in Seoul, a building modelled after traditional Korean scholar’s houses. Rendered in intricate detail using Suh’s signature fabric construction techniques, North Wall captures the architecture of Suh’s childhood home while evoking the themes of longing, memory and traces of displacement. The sculpture’s brilliant green fabric draws on the traditional green used for the ceilings of a scholar’s house, a colour symbolising the universe and its endless possibilities. 

Suh is globally renowned for his translucent fabric sculptures, often described as portable homes. His work captures architectural details from the various places he has lived and worked, inviting us to reflect on how we experience intimacy within our own domestic spaces.

North Wall was acquired for the Gallery’s collection in 2024 with support from the Auckland Contemporary Art Trust. 

Image credit: Do Ho Suh, North Wall, 2005. Installation view at Leeum Museum of Art, 2012. Photography by Jeon Taeg Su. © Do Ho Suh