ABOUT CAUSE & EFFECT

Do Ho Suh received a honorary doctorate degree from WWU and had the opportunity to create a piece of artwork for the WWU campus. In an interview with Artech Inc describing his work “Cause and Effect”, Do Ho Suh explained that his artwork is “a physical realization of existence, suggesting strength in numerous individuals. The work is an attempt to decipher the boundaries between a single identity and a larger group, and how the two conditions co-exist.” His piece is a combination of architectural design and artistic flow, providing the role of embodying the community at WWU and the strength and importance behind coming together as a collective on a college campus. There’s over 1200 individual strands in Cause and Effect. The sculpture is around 19’x8’ (Jared Orlander )

ABOUT DO HO SUH

Do Ho Suh was born in 1962, Seoul, Korea. Do Ho grew up in an artistic environment. His father was a painter and his mother was knowledgeable in Korean heritage. During High school, he was affected by the Gwangju Massacre in 1980. Although he wasn’t a part of the protest he felt the pain of the hundreds that were killed. When Do Ho became of age he was enrolled into South Korea’s Army. After his service, he moved to the United States to continue his education in art. He applied to RISO but was declined for the graduate program and enrolled as a sophomore. There he started the painting program. He took a non-major elective “figurative in contemporary sculpture” which would change his life forever. There he used tiny figures to represent the idea of identity of one person. He received a bachelor in fine arts in painting from the Rhode Island School of Design. After RISO he pursued a master in fine arts at Yale. (Jared Orlander )

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Sitting here gazing upon “Cause and Effect” I have sense of chaos. The piece yet still and serene is screaming out at me. The white crystals start to blend with the red as it begins its change. Reading the details on the piece Do Ho Suh uses the piece to represent the change and identity of his people. I get sense that the white is pure but over time the world influences and distorts innocence. There’s an undeniable sense of successive qualitative change driving the form of the piece. Each strand represents a single instance but together they blend to be one. Another point Do Ho Suh makes in Cause and Effect. It’s not until I moved closer that I realized that the streamers are humans on each other’s shoulders. How more clear could Do Ho Suh be?

Tyler Langhauser

BIBLIOGRAPHY

“Do Ho Suh.” Do Ho Suh Biography – Do Ho Suh on artnet. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Jan. 2017.

“Cause and Effect by Do Ho Suh | Artech.” RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Jan. 2017.Do Ho Suh. Lehmann Maupin, n.d. Web.