The sculpture was made in 2012, after a similar larger version that is currently on display at the Lehmann Maupin Gallery in New York. The smaller version on display at Western Washington University is 19 feet long and 8 feet across, composed of over 1,200 strands of tiny stacked people. Because it was made within the last few decades, I think that the time period didn’t influence it as much as we’ve seen for other works of art. If anything, you could say that we’ve evolved a lot over the decades; broad concepts such as unity within our environment, our place in the world, and interactions with each other (you could almost say existential questions) have started to show up more in art in the past 100 years or so- all things that Cause and Effect is supposed to embody.  I don’t think the piece was controversial for its time like some are, or that it was influenced by a particularly significant marker of the decade, but the theme itself is a very 21^st century theme.

Nearly all of his other works deal with the theme of displacement and the viewer’s connection with a sense of home and a sense of self. Many of his sculptures are large and interactive, forming a new relationship: how the piece sits within the space. For example, Fallen Star, the sort of life-sized dollhouse complete with a garden that rests on a building at UC San Diego, is meant to evoke and replicate feelings of being in an unfamiliar environment for the first time (such as starting college.) He intended for the house to disorient viewers, and deal with “a feeling of displacement”, in relation to his own journey from Seoul, South Korea to America. A similar piece, Fallen Star 1/5, is an elaborate and detailed dollhouse-like sculpture, part of which is “wrecked” on the inside, providing further commentary on what it means to uproot oneself from a certain environment. Another famous sculpture he is known for is Seoul Home, a replica of his childhood house made entirely of fabric that is suspended from the ceiling, so that viewers can experience being underneath and almost “inside” of it. Suh’s reasoning behind his fabric sculptures was to communicate a feeling from a place, rather than to recreate the space itself. The airy quality to the sculptures adds to that effect.

Do-Ho’s education is an expansive one- before moving to America in his 30’s, he earned his Master’s degree in classic Korean painting, and then continued school at both RISD and Yale. Growing up in a household surrounded by both art and knowledge of Korean culture provided by his parents, he became exposed to two things that make his art unique today. A sculpture class elective at RISD was what initially got him interested in sculpture, and his first major piece was evocative of his intent to use his culture and life experiences as motivators behind his art. At first glance, many of Do-Ho Suh’s pieces seem to flow very well, and because of that property, they all interact with the space around them well. According to an article on artnet.com, he “…attempts to draw attention to how viewers of his work inhabit the public space around them”, confirming that observation. Cause and Effect is only one example of this. According to Your Bright Future: 12 Contemporary Artists From Korea, he is also enamored with the concept “karmic fate”, aka “inyeon”, which makes sense in the context of many of his pieces. Cause and Effect, for example, deals with the many ways individuals influence each other as a cohesive group.

Along with many other pieces by him, 2009’s Cause and Effect was meant to symbolize an aspect of one’s identity again, but instead of feelings of alienation and confusion about where you belong, this one strives to evoke what it means to be a part of a larger group. According to him, [The artwork is a] physical realization of existence, suggesting strength in the presence of numerous individuals. The work is an attempt to decipher the boundaries between a single identity and a larger group, and how the two conditions coexist.”

Research: Robin Green
Photography/video: Angie Cruz

Sources:

“Do-Ho Suh at Lehmann Maupin Gallery.” Art21 Magazine. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Feb. 2017.

“Cause and Effect by Do Ho Suh | Artech.” RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Feb. 2017.

Starkman, Christine, and Lynn Zelevansky. Your bright future: 12 contemporary artists from Korea. Houston: Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 2009. Print.

“Do Ho Suh’s Cause and Effect.” Magical Urbanism. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Feb. 2017.

“Do Ho Suh.” Do Ho Suh Biography – Do Ho Suh on artnet. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Feb. 2017.

“Do Ho Suh.” Do Ho Suh Biography – Do Ho Suh on artnet. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Feb. 2017.

“Do Ho Suh – Contemporary Austin.” The Contemporary Austin. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Feb. 2017.

Bloomberg. YouTube. YouTube, 10 Oct. 2016. Web. 06 Feb. 2017.