The Bridge

Aug 21

Notes from Hugh

Discovering the Work of Do Ho Suh

In June 2024, the studio of the South Korean artist Do Ho Suh asked me to write a piece about his BRIDGE project. This is a concept, or set of ideas, that Do Ho had been developing for at least ten years, and was to be part of THE GENESIS EXHIBITION: DO HO SUH: WALK THE HOUSE at the Tate Modern, London, April 29 – October 19, 2025. The BRIDGE project is just one element in an extraordinary, and extraordinarily beautiful, display of images and installations that explore the meaning of home—homes where Do Ho has lived, graphic and textile work that expresses what home has meant to him, and the visualized plans for a bridge he imagined: a bridge that could link the three cities he has known as home—Seoul, New York, and London.

To help me write about this strange bridge, the studio sent me copies of many of Do Ho’s drawings that show fantastical plans, visions, possibilities, and even engineering challenges—detailed background to the idea. They also shared information about the geography of the bridge. This revealed that the point of intersection of the shortest possible distances for bridges linking the three cities was somewhere in the Arctic Ocean. It was here, where the spans all met, equidistant to Seoul, New York, and London, that Do Ho imagined he could establish “a perfect home.” In the work he had been making, this was both a practical reality—or at least the imagining of the practicalities that this fantasy reality would entail—and an ideal, a dreamlike possibility, a theorized perfection.

Fascinated by the idea, and delighted by Do Ho’s graphics, I wrote him a 35-page memo—more a long, sprawling letter, really—spelling out my thoughts about his bridge, with its idealized epicenter deep in the high Arctic. I sent this to him at the beginning of September 2024. Do Ho’s response was fast and full of enthusiasm. He invited me to meet with him and talk through the information and questions I had raised. In the course of that meeting, he commissioned me to make a short film of the letter.

I asked for guidelines: What length? Any length, he said—it was up to me. Given that film needs to be centered on a relatively small amount of information and ideas, what did he think it should include or exclude from the letter? “Exclude nothing,” he insisted. And which of his graphics would he want in the film? “Up to you,” he said. Surely we must include the Indigenous voice, and respect the priorities and points of view of the people who would be his neighbors, living on the shores of the Arctic Ocean nearest to his imagined home? “Yes, yes,” he said. “We must be sure to speak with them, and, if possible, make a film that establishes their central place in what has always been their perfect home; make two films…”

So I had the puzzling task of making a film of a letter—including everything—and another, finding a way of establishing the voices of the people of the Arctic. In further discussions with Do Ho’s studio, and especially Amie Corrie, who became the executive producer of the films, I agreed to begin by making the film of the letter, and, at the same time, look for ways of building a connection with either Chukchi or Inupiat elders. Also, guided by the studio and Do Ho’s expectation that the films could well be used as part of future BRIDGE exhibitions, they would have to be short.

Thanks to the powerful photography of Bryan Alexander, Manuel Hammelsbeck, Robert Semeniuk, and Kiliii Yuyan, I had access to a range of beautiful stills and film clips that could take us to the land, animals, and above all the people that constituted the real world of Do Ho’s imagined home. With the editing skills of Hattie Brooks-Ward, along with generous and tireless support from Do Ho’s studio team, the letter film took shape through autumn and winter 2024–25.

The challenge, meanwhile, was to find links to the people of Chukotka and Alaska. Thanks to the help of the British anthropologist Piers Vitebsky, we learned that it would be impossible to set up an on-camera, or even a sound-only, meeting with Chukchi elders. The Putin war on Ukraine had led to intense propaganda even in the remotest communities of Siberia, with demonization of the nations that support Ukraine. A climate of fear meant that no one could or should be asked to risk being accused of contact with Britain. So the hope of bringing the Chukchi voice into the project had to be abandoned—but not without clear acknowledgment of the Chukchi place in the far north, and the history of their long and defiant struggle to sustain their rights to their lands and way of life.

Thanks to a friend who had spent time traveling in and writing about a community on the Alaska coast, I was able to get in touch with Rachel Naninaaq Edwardson, an Inupiaq film producer and Indigenous rights activist based in Utqiagvik, a village on the shoreline directly to the south of Do Ho’s “perfect home.” Rachel then led me to Doreen Nutaaq Simmonds, an Inupiaq elder, and set up an interview—lit and filmed with great skill by Rachel in Doreen’s home in Utqiagvik. I was able to carry out the interview thanks to the miracle of Zoom: Rachel set up a computer alongside the camera, so Doreen spoke with me in London while Rachel filmed her side of the conversation at the edge of the Arctic Ocean.

As we came to edit the short film made from this interview, Rachel told me about a hunter in Utqiagvik who was also a photographer—Eben W. Hopson. As it turned out, Eben was Doreen’s nephew—and his work was very strong. His photographs are the only visual element of the second film, NUTAAQ, other than the beautifully expressive Doreen herself.

Thus the letter and two short films became my responses to the work of Do Ho Suh. They cannot possibly do justice to the enormous range and astonishing creative skills that lie behind the GENESIS exhibition—still less to the clarity, depth, and vital importance of the Indigenous peoples of the Arctic. But googling any of the individuals I refer to in this note will lead into much that is of vital importance to the north. Also, see the links to that work—the book about his graphic art and the exhibition itself.

Towards the end of filming the interview with Doreen Nutaaq, she was unable to hold back her tears. At the center of her grief was the double challenge of global warming and the recurrent damage being done to Inupiaq heritage and therefore wellbeing. As I worked on the films, and spent time engaged again with the implications of all that the people of the far north are experiencing—and the alarms they have been sounding for so many years—I encountered with new clarity the massive and dreadful dangers that come from rapid climate change.

The work of Do Ho Suh has many themes, and is rich with moving and vital reflections on the meaning of home. But in the high Arctic, where all possible homes are threatened by environmental destruction—the destruction that is the result of spiraling greed and its related burning of fossil fuels far to the south—global warming reveals itself at its most alarming speed. These are voices that speak with impassioned authority on behalf of us all.

Credits

Written and directed by

Hugh Brody

Editor

Hattie Brooks-Ward

Studio Camera

Jonathon Bloom and Alin Ostafe

Producer

Amie Corry

Consultant Producer

Betsy Carson

Music

Jonah Brody

Sound Design and Mix

Rick Blything

Film clips from:

'ON THIN ICE"
Manuel Hammelsbek

'PEOPLE OF THE WHALE'
Kiliii Yüyan

Still Photography

Bryan and Cherry Alexander / Arctic Photos Robert Semeniuk
Kiliii Yüyan

Title Design

James Houston

Lead designer, Do Ho Studio

Nicola Chan

Coordination, Do Ho Studio

Amandine Couot-Garibal

Production Assistant

Colombe Stevens

Iñupiaq Translations

Doreen Nutaaq Simmonds

Supported by

Genesis Art Initiatives

With special thanks to all contributors:

Bryan Alexander
Rachel Naŋiñaaq Edwardson
Manuel Hammelsbek
Robert Semeniuk
Kiliii Yüyan

Also to:
Juliet Stevenson
Gary Marcuse
Kyle Bloxham Mundy
Elisa Lapenna
George Bolwel
Isobel Currie
Dominic Oliver
Jon Lowe
Genesis Art Initiaties

and everyone at Do Ho Suh Studio.

Produced by

Do Ho Studio with the help of Genesis Art Initiatives, ahead of the Genesis Exhibition:
Do Ho Suh - Walk the House
Tate Modern, London (1 May - 19 October 2025)

With thanks and deep appreciation to Do Ho Suh

Footage from 'Do Ho Suh - Seoul Home: Rubbing/Loving' (2014)

Sponsored by

CJ Culture Foundation.

Director

Do Ho Suh

Editor

Hein S Seok

Producer

Paul Choi

Videography

Taejon Kim
Sungjin Park
Sangwood Kim