The Victoria Miro gallery is a British contemporary gallery run by British art dealer Victoria Micro. “Victoria Miro represents 40 established and emerging artists. One of the largest commercial spaces in London, the gallery occupies 19,000 square feet across three sites in Mayfair and Wharf Road, N1’(Victoria Micro, 2017).” The white walled gallery is a versatile space in which different artists can exhibit work. The door is hidden away, where the visitor must buzz themselves in, like a London apartment.
Currently being displayed in the Victoria Miro is Korean artist Do Ho Suh’s exhibition passages. The colourful instillation made from panels running through the blank white room allows visitors to walk through a 1:1 scale representation of the different places he has visited and worked in his life. “To move through these delicately precise, weightless impressions is to experience a distinct emotional register, a sense of being in flux, crossing boundaries and moving between psychological states,”(Dezeen, 2017). As you walk slowly through the structure, your eyes are drawn to the small features sewn into the panels such as the door knobs, the plug and the detailing in the doors. The different heights and colours of the individual sections deliver the user a physical representation of the artist’s experience within that space. After exiting the structure, on the left-hand side of the room are impressive hand drawn rendered isometrics and elevations of the artist’s ‘homes’ all linked together.
It’s interesting how Do Ho Suh decided to communicate his spatial journey using colourful and transparent sheets, integrating small intrigue architectural details such as light switches, fire alarms, doors etc. They place the visitor within that space offering narrative. The exhibit is not only impressive but leaves the user with their own interpretation of the journey he has taken through his life time. The structure is accompanied by interesting animated videos of various conversations between him and his daughter in English and Korean as they travel around London from three different viewpoints, describing his journey throughout the spaces.
References
Dezeen (2017) ‘Do Ho Suh creates colourful structures to represent his experience of migration.’ https://www.dezeen.com/2017/02/10/do-ho-suh-explores-identity-migration-colourful-connected-structures-installations-design-victoria-miro-gallery/. (accessed: 12.02.17).
Victoria Miro (2017) ‘about.’ https://www.victoria-miro.com/about/. (accessed: 12.01.17)
AMY SWEET 