Elements of Life

Do Ho Suh, "Rubbing/Loving", 2016, mixed media. 
Source: https://magpieaesthetic.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Do-Ho-Suh-Rubbing-Loving-creation-in-progress.png

“I try to understand my life as a movement through different spaces.” - Do Ho Suh (Art 21)

To see, to smell, to hear, to taste, and to touch - these are the five senses that allow us, humans, to communicate with the world around us. 

Each complements one another and even just simply having just one sense one can feel and understand the world in their very way. There are often, that our senses are overused, by the continuous barrage of noise, images, and smells that distract us from something that may be more important. There are these moments in life, based on the places we are in where we begin to lose focus on the details around us. It is as if life begins to blur and someone had decided to hit the remote that zaps forward by the 2x speed. 

This speed paired alongside repetitiveness urges us onwards. But, it is in life that artists such as Do Ho Suh presents their interpretation of this notion of 'stopping and smelling the roses'. For the blog relating to "Art Elements" I present Do Ho Suh's "Rubbing/Loving". "Rubbing/Loving" officially created in 2016 is a piece that spans the time of Do Ho Suh's experience in this New York City apartment, but was 'sketched' in 2016. The work was created at an apartment on West 22nd Street in New York City. The work consists of Suh covering every surface of this apartment with white paper. This includes the walls, cabinets, light switches, door handles, and even the apartment key lock. From there using mixed media including colored pencils and pastels Suh rubs every blank white sheet with the details of the apartment. Following the vacating of this apartment that Suh used to live in, Suh has taken all the paper fragments that can be re-designed and re-established as a new exhibiting reassembled work. You can watch a video here on Suh's progression and development throughout the project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BpBZsKjvD4

Do Ho Suh, "Rubbing/Loving", 2016, mixed media. 
Source: http://prod-upp-image-read.ft.com/73a43116-e294-11e6-9645-c9357a75844a

In outlining this blog relating to the art elements I will briefly use my perception of Suh's work "Rubbing/Loving" from what I can tell alongside the prescribed notions of visual elements of art from our coursework. Such categories that I shall poetically define and cite the "Art Factory" (The Visual Elements) as Line, Shape, Tone, Color, Pattern, Texture, and Form. 

I quickly mention that I feel and emotionally connect to art at times in an entirely different way than others. Though the art elements that the "Art Factory" provides a good basis for envisioning, comprehending, and understanding artistic elements. The techniques and emotions that artists attempt to evoke should all differ and be subjective. 

Do Ho Suh, "Rubbing/Loving", 2016, mixed media. 
Source: http://magazine.art21.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/image01.png

Line

Per Suh's imagery and video documentation, the lines of "Rubbing/Loving" (Art 21) are a form of movement. The movement of the space between each brick on the wall being traced to the electrical outlet. The familiar line qualities that Suh attempts to portray include those of the continuous lines of the already present background apartment paired alongside with a mixture of thick and thin lines. What makes this piece unique in terms of lines are there are 'straight' and 'direct' lines to this piece because everything in the apartment is merely traced. But, for the artist Suh, these lines are ones he thought has seen and lived in are for the first time noticed and recognized in totality. 

Shape 

The behavior of this piece as mentioned by "Art Factory" (The Visual Elements) is entirely based on the shapes of the present fixtures and setting of the apartment. The various square, circle, triangles ranging from the square cabinet, circular doorknob, triangular corners of the room. Each is the sole representation of three-dimensional shapes that contain the structures around Suh in the apartment. What is unique about the shape of this piece is that it engulfs the audience and those who are around it. Even though, one is not able to now be in the art piece. They can feel and understand what it means to be inside a room that contains a door, a cabinet, and something that resembles what Suh was attempting to trace/rub out of the New York apartment. 

Tone/Color/Pattern

The tone, color, and pattern are all related in this section of understanding the artistic elements of Suh's piece. That is, within each piece of paper the tracing of the rooms and fixtures are all figuring out the tones of the darkness based on how protruding an object may be, paired alongside with the color selection by Suh from yellow, blue, red with a tone of aerial depth and distance. It is as if Suh is attempting to put both unique color scale of the main tertiary colors of red, yellow, and blue but with a tone of lightness. There is certain transparency to the colors that provide for the depth and movement. Movement through and around the apartment, engaging with and of the spaces that are in between what is originally understood as a door or cabinet per se. The patterns are solely man-made. They are the creation of human objects from bricks, keys, and fixtures that are used within a 'house' of a New York apartment. 

Texture/Form 

The texture of "Rubbing/Loving" (Art 21) is none other than the physical texture. The physical being that of expressiveness and energy are present. It is the comforting and lamenting feeling of Suh's strokes paired alongside the engaged rubbing of the colored pencil and pastel on the white paper that creates this piece. The stark lines paired with the light colors make for an extremely transparent piece that can be re-assembled and re-designed any possible way, but never delineating from the origins of the memories of Suh's New York apartment and interaction with space. The form of this piece is a meshing of architecture and visual art. By tracing one is creating visual art. By using the apartment one is creating architecture as it can be re-assembled. By taking the 3-D form and creating a 2-D visual out of it is the perfect blurring between the lines of space usage. 

Re-assembling of Do Ho Suh, "Rubbing/Loving", 2016, mixed media.
Source: http://artasiapacific.com/Magazine/WebExclusives/DoHoSuhDrawings

Observation and Conclusion

This is ART? What is art? As I write this blog, I begin to wonder what my perceptions of art are...and if they can even align with the elements that Do Ho Suh has presented for us. My introduction to this artist was through a friend, who is an artist of a great experience. (Thank you.) I ponder the work of Suh as being both temporal and forever. Temporal in that it is and can be quickly replaced and moved even though the memory of the place is forever. The spaces around us for which we use have artistic meaning from the table you are currently sitting at, to the computer you are using, and the window with sunlight flowing in. These fixtures around us enhance our lives in minute ways for which we must recognize them by 'loving' them as Suh describes his piece as. I feel as if I better understand life momentarily by reflecting on my past experiences and the spaces I have moved through. The beauty, the pain, and the unbelievable. These are all emotions of forever that can temporarily return to us as artists, explorers, and scholars on this thing called 'life'. 

I say to you reader, take a moment. Look up, look down, look left, look right, and finally notice that detail once more as you look, look, look, look, look.....for LIFE. 

Works Cited: 

Art21. “Do Ho Suh, Rubbing/Loving.” Smarthistory, smarthistory.org/do-ho-suh-rubbing-loving/.

“Do Ho Suh: ‘Rubbing / Loving’ (SHORT).” Art21, art21.org/watch/extended-play/do-ho-suh-rubbing-loving-short/.

Rose, Julian. “Do Ho Suh Discusses Rubbing/Loving.” Discusses Rubbing/Loving - Artforum International, 19 Jan. 2017, www.artforum.com/interviews/do-ho-suh-discusses-rubbing-loving-66014.

The Visual Elements, www.artyfactory.com/art_appreciation/visual-elements/visual-elements.html.