The nylon stairs


More Do-Ho Suh, this time photographed by gravestmor‘s own Marcus Trimble. It’s a set of stairs woven entirely from translucent nylon. Hanging in space.
Meanwhile, check out the previous post for information on Do-Ho Suh – and don’t forget to stop by gravestmor: it’s worth the trip.

5 thoughts on “The nylon stairs”

  1. Hi. This reminds me of this poem by Stephen Dunn.

    (i’m hoping the lines survive intact, but if they don’t, you can find the poem on http://fanaticfandom.blogspot.com

    The Stairway

    The architect wanted to build a stairway
    and suspend it with silver, almost invisible
    guy wires in a high-ceilinged room,
    a stairway you couldn’t ascend or descend
    except in your dreams. But first —
    because wild things are not easily seen
    if what’s around them is wild —
    he’d make sure the house that housed it
    was practical, built two-by-four by
    two-by-four, slat by slat, without ornament.
    The stairway would be an invitation
    to anyone who felt invited by it,
    and depending on your reaction he’d know
    if friendship were possible.
    The house he’d claim as his, but the stairway
    would be designed to be ownerless,
    tilted against any suggestion of a theology,
    disappointing to those looking for politics.
    Of course the architect knew
    that over the years he’d have to build
    other things the way others desired,
    knew that to live in this world was to trade
    a few industrious hours for one beautiful one.
    Yet every night when he got home
    he could imagine, as he walked in the door,
    his stairway going nowhere, not for sale,
    and maybe some you to whom nothing
    about it need be explained, waiting,
    the wine decanted, the night about to unfold.

    (Stephen Dunn)

  2. gd gracious! do-ho suh’s nylon tectonics seems to be a diametric opposite of rachel whiteread’s cast architectural spaces…

    suh:whiteread is, even if very crudely, nylon:plaster, translucency:opaque, installation:sculpture, voyeurism:blankstare, and more and more and more.

  3. eothen – Nice Dunn poem; you could update it for the era of near-space balloon flights, and tow a staircase through the sky, sewn with nylon, hanging three miles from the bulbous bottom of a hot air balloon. (Or is that a Roald Dahl short story?)

    And what’s up, Carlos, how’s Panama?

    Michael – Good point. Perhaps Whiteread could do a cast of the inside of a Do-Ho Suh piece…?

  4. Oh ya, a Suh-Whiteread collaboration would be so wonderful. They could tentatively call it: ‘Ghost vs Ghost’….

    Whiteread once said that she’ll pay homage to her own work by cast the space in her body when she dies and then tear away her body. Soh’s next nylon project can be sewn from his own body, with all the detailings of the buttons on his shirt, the folds in his ears, the loose shoelaces – way cool!

Leave a Reply to Geoff Manaugh Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.