Global Narratives Network: In Conversation with Do Ho Suh

The V&A Global Narratives Network (GNN) is a collective of staff and volunteers. We create supportive and inclusive spaces for those who belong to the global majority. The members celebrate, share and problematise culture through regular events, updates and information-sharing with groups across the museum.

As co-chair of the Global Narratives Network, it was a real privilege to host an intimate conversation with Do Ho Suh; an artist whose work has long shaped how we think about home, movement, and belonging across borders. The event brought together colleagues and practitioners to reflect on liberation at the intersection of art, architecture, and politics; guided by Suh’s quietly attentive and thoughtful practice.

Do Ho Suh first came to international attention when he represented Korea at the 49th Venice Biennale in 2001. Since then, his work, spanning sculpture, installation, and film, has consistently returned to a deceptively simple question; “How much space can I carry with me?” Through meticulously constructed, life scale replicas of domestic interiors made from translucent fabric, Suh explores home not as a fixed site, but as something emotional, portable, and endlessly repeatable. His works evoke delicacy and care, while the labour-intensive processes behind them suggest creative ways of remembering, revisiting, and reconnecting with space.

During the conversation, Suh spoke about crossing boundaries, between Korea, US and the UK, past and present homes, inner and outer worlds. His transportable architectures challenge the idea of site specificity itself; sites can be removed from their original locations, folded into suitcases, and reassembled elsewhere, carrying memory, emotion, and lived experience across borders.

A particularly insightful moment came when Suh reflected on working within institutional frameworks. We discussed his collaborations with major institutions such as Tate and the V&A, including his recent film on Robin Hood Gardens, currently on display at V&A East Storehouse. He described how working with small museum or gallery teams can feel fluid and supportive, allowing ideas to be realised closely and intuitively. In contrast, larger institutions bring more complex processes and conditions, such as ensuring accessibility for wheelchair users by widening passageways within installations. Rather than viewing these requirements as limitations, Suh spoke about how they pushed him to expand his ideas, scale up his work, and evolve his practice in response to institutional priorities.

For us as members of the GNN, this conversation captured the very purpose of the group. GNN exists to create supportive and inclusive spaces for staff and volunteers, who belong to the global majority; spaces where culture can be celebrated, questioned, and shared openly across the museum. Emerging in 2020 from a moment of urgency, care, and collective organising, the network has always been shaped by dialogue, mutual support, and staff-led initiatives. Hearing Suh speak candidly about the realities of working with institutions; from the ease of collaborating with small teams to the challenges and possibilities of large-scale organisational structures; resonated deeply with our own experiences. The event offered a rare opportunity to reflect together on how artistic vision, accessibility, and institutional priorities intersect in practice. It reminded us that inclusivity is not a fixed outcome, but an ongoing process of negotiation, listening, and adaptation. By opening up this conversation, the event reaffirmed GNN’s role as a space where difficult questions can be held collectively, where differences are acknowledged with care, and where new ways of working across the museum can be imagined together.