Walk the House, Rethink "Home": A Surprisingly Moving Visit to Tate Modern

I’ll be honest: when I first read the description of Do Ho Suh: Walk the House, I wasn’t exactly rushing to book tickets. Fabric reconstructions of old houses? Domestic architecture in polyester? It didn’t sound like my thing. Turns out it’s the most thought-provoking exhibition I’ve seen this year!

This show isn’t just about houses. It’s about the feeling of home, of memory, of moving from one place to another and not quite fitting in—or, eventually, fitting in so well you forget what came before. For anyone who’s ever packed up their life into a suitcase (hello, international students!), this exhibition hits hard.

Do Ho Suh, a Korean artist now based in London, builds his past homes from translucent fabric—doorways, kitchens, bathrooms, even tiny light switches—all sewn together with delicate precision. You walk through these spaces like a ghost retracing someone else’s memories. It’s eerie, emotional, and unexpectedly beautiful.

The exhibition doesn’t stop at fabric walls. There are films, sound recordings, and even a newspaper you can take away, diving deeper into the questions behind the art. For English learners, it’s a treasure trove: real-world language, diverse voices, subtitles, and strange-but-fascinating ideas to unpack. His attention to detail and painstaking efforts to recreate the homes he’s lived in are a real inspiration to us all.

One piece imagines a “perfect home” floating in the middle of nowhere, linked by bridges to Seoul, New York, and London. It’s simple, surreal, and strangely moving. The idea? Home isn’t just one place—it’s a network of everywhere you’ve lived, everyone you’ve met, and every version of yourself you’ve been. To explore it, Do Ho Suh has conversations with engineers, conservationists, and Indigenous communities about how such a structure might impact the world—socially, environmentally, and philosophically.

For any student it’s a brilliant starting point for conversation: What does home mean to you? What would your “perfect home” look like? And which cities would you build a bridge to?

So, if you find yourself near the Tate Modern before 19 October, go. It might surprise you. Just like learning a language, it’s more moving than you expect.

Daniel Studholme